Jack and Angie
by chrisd1016929
Summary: Jack finds out he left behind more than he thought when he left Detroit, but after returning for his mothers funeral, he gets a chance to have it all.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: This is my very first little tiny baby step into the world of Four Brothers fan fiction. I have always loved the movie that John Singleton and the actors brought to vivid life. Plus, being from Detroit myself, it holds a special place in my heart. I especially like the characters of Bobby and Jack. _

_I can't seem to limit myself to one character's POV, but I tried really hard to make sure that it would be obvious ho was thinking what. I would really appreciate any critiques you can give me as this is my very first fan fic ever and I would only enjoy writing more. So even if you are a lurker like me, please take the time to update, even if its only to tell me what you think is wrong. Politely if you please. I am the sensitive type that would get depressed for days over any flames. _

_Sorry about the title. I am incredibly unimaginative when it comes to deciding titles. Please, please, PLEASE review and tell me what you think._

Chapter 1

Angie Montgomery stared through the window of Jerry's upstairs bedroom at the lone figure standing with his back towards the house while he smoked a cigarette. Nervously biting her lip, she backed away a little so he would not see her if he turned around. She had known that he would probably be here and had prepared herself—or at least she thought she had. She had spent the last two days thinking of what she would say and how she would say it, but now that the moment was almost here, she had to fight the urge to run away and hide out until she was sure he had left town.

She grimaced to herself. She watched as another figure joined the lone man standing there and talking to each other for a few minutes before they turned and headed towards the house. She nervously wiped her sweaty hands on the skirt of her long sleeved black dress and turned to her left to check her reflection in the dresser mirror. Deciding to take a few more minutes to herself to calm down, she sat on the bed with a hand over her racing heart.

She jumped and almost fell off the bed when she heard the bedroom door open softly behind her a little while later. Jerry gave her an understanding smile as he closed the door with a quiet click and sat down next to her. He put a comforting hand around her shoulders as he asked, "You okay there Pipsqueak?"

She put a trembling hand to her mouth and took a deep breath as she nodded, "I'm scared shitless Jer. He is gonna be so hurt," she confessed in a whisper, "and so angry."

Jerry could only nod at that. After a few seconds he said quietly, "Jack is gonna be hurt Angie, and he is gonna be plenty angry too, but I know my little brother and I can tell you that he _will _get over it….eventually." he grinned at her, before his face became deadly serious, "But you have to tell him babe. He has a right to know about Sebastian."

"But—," Angie hated the whine in her voice and Jerry cut her off with a hand over her mouth, knowing that she was about to suggest that she should wait to talk to Jack for a couple of days until the shock of their mom's death had worn off a little.

"It's been almost four years already. The time for waiting has left town, now put on your big girl panties and go down there and tell him the truth." He told her firmly while looking steadily into her eyes. His expression lifted as he said half-jokingly, "It could be worse you know."

"Yeah, like how?" Angie grumped as she smoothed one hand over the wavy dark blonde hair that was currently restrained in a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck.

"You could be facing having this conversation with Bobby." He snickered.

Angie shuddered at the thought. As mad as Jack Mercer was likely to get, she had no doubt that he would never get physical in his anger towards her. Bobby Mercer was a different animal all together. Not that she thought Bobby capable of hitting a woman either; she knew that he wouldn't, their adoptive mother had instilled a certain level of respect for women in all the hard-ass Mercer boy's. Bobby was more likely to go get drunk and pick a fight with the first poor asshole that happened to look at him funny.

As they stepped up to the stairs, Jerry grabbed her arm and gave her a little pep talk, "Angie, you are a strong, beautiful, courageous woman. You can do this. And even if he acts like an asshole for a few hours, you will always have me and Camille to come talk too, okay?"

She smiled slightly as she nodded and kissed his cheek. Before she could back away from him though, she found herself staring into the same beautiful blue eyes she had been dreaming about for the last four years. She swallowed nervously as she thought that at least in her dreams, those eyes were not filled with as much anger and disgust as they were now. She could see the accusation forming in those eyes, but before Jack could do more than open his mouth, Bobby came to the rescue.

"Pipsqueak!" he practically shouted as he elbowed Jack aside and wrapped her in his arms, "How the hell have you been doin' girl? That dickhead ain't with you is he?"

She smiled uneasily at Bobby as she answered quietly, her body rigid with tension, "No…no he's not. I'm doin' okay Bobby. I…" She swallowed the wave of grief she felt at the thought of Evelyn, "I'm sorry about your mom. She was a great lady."

Bobby's face twitched with pain as he said, "Yeah, she sure was." He was silent for a moment before asking her, "So do you still live at the same place?" When she nodded, he said with sincerity, "Well then, you should come over tomorrow and we'll get caught up. You know you are always welcome at the Mercer house." He gave a hard stare at Jack as Jack looked like he wanted to debate that point. Jack finally rolled his eyes at the ceiling and pursed his lips as he jammed his hands into his jacket pockets.

Not wanting to cause a fight between the brothers, Angie murmured a non-committal reply before Jerry, who must have decided that there was no time like the present for her to try and talk to Jack, grabbed Bobby's arm and asked, "Let me show you the basement. We just finished it off last summer." And promptly dragged Bobby down the stairs leaving her alone with her ex for that long overdue talk.

Jack, realizing that he was alone with her, started down the steps without a word. Putting her hand on his arm that held onto the banister, she noticed that his arm went rigid. Angie asked softly, "Jack—." but before she could say anything else, the door to her right opened and a small voice asked. "Mommy?"

Jack swiveled his attention to the small boy at her side so fast, she was surprised he didn't hurt anything, as his eyes widened in shock before narrowing in fury. As Angie picked up her son and soothed him, he gave the boy a forced smile before saying with syrupy sweetness all the while glaring at his ex-girlfriend, "Hi there. My name is Jack, what's yours little man?"

The blondish-brown haired boy took stock of the man in front of him with all the seriousness of a child before saying shyly, "S'bastian." Before burying his head in his mother's neck.

"And how old are you Sebastian?" Jack asked without breaking eye contact with her.

"Twee." Sebastian answered with a yawn, holding up three small fingers of one hand and stuffing the thumb of his other hand into his mouth. Angie frantically thought of what to do or something to say before Jack asked her son any more questions that would reveal when she wanted to explain herself before Jack ran away with the wrong idea. Angie put Sebastian down gently and said coaxingly, "Sweetie, why don't you go ask Aunt Camille for a cookie humm?"

The boy nodded happily and promptly ran down the stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him. As Jack watched him disappear around the corner, Angie put a hand on top of his again as she said, "Jack…" But Jack spun around as he ripped his hand away from her.

"Don't!" he spat at her, his thin lean body shaking so hard with the force of his rage that he stumbled down a couple of steps, "Don't bother Angie!" Turning to her, he hissed with soul-deep hurt underlining the venom, "Tell me Angie how I am supposed to _want _to hear a fucking word you got to say now?"

Tears filled her silvery blue eyes as she pleaded, "Please…please Jack, just let me explain—."

"I don't want to FUCKING HEAR IT!!" his deep voice getting louder with every word. He looked around to see if anyone had heard him and turned back to her. He took a deep breath and said so quietly that she could barely hear him, "I don't want to talk about this…about us…or what used to be us." He ran a hand through his hair and she saw the tears in his eyes as he asked hoarsely, "Can you make up some excuse for you to not accept Bobby's invitation?"

"Wh—what? Why" she asked.

"Because I don't want to see you, that's why." He snapped angrily as he advanced towards her a step, "I don't want to see you and I don't want to see the proof of your lies!"

He seemed to realize that he was intimidating her when she shrank back from him. His shoulders slumped slightly and he turned away as he said, "It will only take a couple of days. When everything is settled here, I'll be gone and then you can spend all the fucking time you want with Bobby." He looked back at her as he sneered, "Just don't expect Bobby to give a shit about you. He'll dump you once he finishes fucking you."

With that, he stomped down the stairs and was gone. Angie stood frozen for all of two seconds once she heard the front door slam before collapsing on her knees as she started to cry. Her body rocked back and forth with the force of her sobs as he heart broke all over again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jack sat in his bedroom strumming his guitar, trying desperately not to think of a certain ex-girlfriend of his down the street. He could still feel the anger well up whenever he thought about her and her little boy, a little boy that should have been his. Would have been his if Angie had not done what she did. If she had not broken his heart, they would have been married by now with maybe a couple of kids.

He frowned to himself. He had been so sure that he was over her when he first knew he would have to come back. But seeing her standing there in the hallway with Jerry had brought all the old feelings back to the surface with a vengeance. Angie Montgomery owned him…heart, body and soul. In the few seconds it took for her and Jerry to notice him standing there, he had wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and run his lips over the skin of her neck, just like he used to.

But then the memory of seeing her with that fucking bastard Derek had jumped to the front of his mind along with the rage he had felt that day. She had told him that they were just friends, and like a fucking idiot, he had believed her, not wanting to get into yet another fight with her again about how he didn't trust her. He knew that she had known Derek for far longer than she had known him. That Derek had been her friend since they were little and she had said that she didn't have those kind of feelings for Derek anyway. That Jack was the only one she wanted to hold her, touch her, taste her. Jack had been the only one she wanted to be inside of her.

Like a moron, he had believed her…until the day he caught the two of them together in her bed.

He scratched the last few cords and wiped his face with his hands. Thankfully, Bobby distracted him from his thoughts as he came into through the open door.

"Been cryin in here you little fairy?" he asked gruffly. Jack decided not to push Bobby's buttons by pointing out that it looked like Bobby had been doing some crying of his own.

"Leave it alone man." He said tiredly as he put the guitar aside and reached for his smokes.

Bobby sat down next to the bad and asked, "Still making a lot a racket on that thing?"

Jack smiled at the long running question as he looked for his lighter and answered, "Yeah, still making a lot of racket" Lighting his cigarette he took a deep drag and picked the guitar back up as he eyed Bobby shrewdly, "Too weird in Mom's room?"

Bobby sighed loudly as he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them to look around, "Oh man, way too weird. It's crazy, I mean, everything is still exactly the same. She didn't change nothin' in this house."

Just then, Jerry walked up and leaned on the door way as he smiled. "Look at y'all." He said with a chuckle.

"What?" Bobby asked, confusion written all over his face.

"Nothing. I'm just happy to see you man. Happy to see my brothers, that's all." Jerry said.

"Happy to see you too Jerry." Bobby said.

"I guess I'll stop by the grocery store and grab a turkey or something. Have a Thanksgiving dinner. Let's at least act like we're a real family, Mom would've liked that." Jerry said coaxingly.

Before Jack or Bobby could respond, Angel came out of his room dressed like he had somewhere to go.

"Where you think you're going?" Jerry asked him.

Angel tried to cover by saying with a sigh, "It's a little heavy in there. I'm just gonna go and get me a little air."

The other three brothers started laughing, "You're full of shit man. You can smell that ass from down the street huh?" Bobby teased.

"What are you talking about?" Angel replied defensively

"What do you mean what? Come on man, you know exactly what we're talking about with La Vida Loca." Bobby said with a snicker.

"Ain't nobody going to get no La Vida Loca nothing." Angel said bullishly.

At this, Jerry piped up and said, "She got a boyfriend."

Bobby laughed as he taunted Angel, "She got a boyfriend. She's got hard dick in her right now, she's screaming somebody else's name and the last thing she's doing is thinking about your black ass." He finished with a dramatic sigh, "Leave it alone man."

Jack couldn't help it, he cracked up at Bobby. Bobby could be a funny motherfucker when he wanted to be. His laughter died though when he though about how Bobby's words applied to his own situation with Angie.

"I can't believe y'all comin at me with this crazy shit man." Angel acted like we didn't know exactly what he was up too. "I'm standing here telling y'all right now, I'm not going to see that girl and I'm not!"

After Angel stormed down the stairs and out of the house, Jack went back to strumming on his guitar as Bobby and Jerry continued to snicker, all amusement at Angel forgotten. Jack wondered if Bobby and Jerry would think him just as pathetic if he admitted that he still had feelings for Angie. Exactly what those feelings were, he had no clue. On one hand, he wanted to storm at her and throw things and say anything that could hurt her as much as she hurt him. On the other hand, he wanted to take her to the nearest bed and fuck her long and hard until any thoughts of another guy never entered her mind ever again.

Breaking out of his thoughts, he noticed that Jerry and Bobby were both looking at him as if they knew what he had been thinking about.

"You thinking about her aren't you Fairy?" Bobby smirked, "Go talk to her. You heard her when she said, she still lives at her house and it ain't that late."

"Stop Bobby." Jack said with finality as he strummed his guitar, "There ain't nothing that we have to talk about. She moved on man, if you don't think she did, all you have to do is look at her kid."

"Ang has a kid?" Bobby asked with a frown.

Jack snorted, not taking his eyes off the guitar in his lap as he said, "Yeah and from the age of him, it didn't take her all that long to get over me when I left." He tried to keep the pain and anger at the thought out of his tone, but he wasn't so sure that his brothers didn't pick up on it.

Bobby, for once, kept his mouth shut while Jerry looked as if he wanted to say something. Finally, all he said was, "Well, I gotta get back to Camile and the girls. I'll see y'all in the morning." Before shaking his head and leaving the house.

Bobby just looked thoughtfully at him for a long time before saying as he got up, "It still sounds like you got unfinished business with Angie Jackie Boy. You might be able to fool Angel and Jerry, but I know you too good for you to fool me." He turned to look at Jack as he stood in the doorway, "You still love her." When Jack opened his mouth to protest, Bobby held up his hand to stop him from interrupting, "She coulda fucked half of Detroit and you would still love that girl and you and I both know it." He closed the door firmly after himself.

Jack thought about the last few days as he switched off the light and stretched out and tried to sleep. He missed Mom so much. She would have known what to say to him. She had this way of letting you know what you should do without coming right out and telling you to do it. Jack had last talked to his mom a month ago and she had made him promise that he would find the time to come home to visit as soon as he could, but with the gigs he and the band had been playing, finding time to make the trip to Detroit had not been easy. He had tried talking to some of the club owners where they were already booked to play, but they had not been as understanding as they had been when they found out it was to attend his mom's funeral.

Jack sighed as he rolled over on his side and played with the silver band on his left index finger. Taking off the ring or the first time in four long years, he stared at the description as he swallowed through the lump in his throat and the burning behind his eyes.

_JM + AM…LOVE FOREVER_

He clenched his hand around the silver band before putting it back on his finger. He knew that sleep would be close to impossible now.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Angie took a drag of the cigarette in her hand as she sat on the front porch of her house deep in thought. While she had never thought that her first meeting with Jack would be all romance and rainbows, it had gone worse than she thought. She had taken one look at him and, as usual, got all tongue tied and unable to say what she wanted to say.

She remembered the day she met the Mercer's. She had been ten and her and her mom had just moved to the neighborhood. Her mom Donna had been a raging alcoholic and a drug addict. About the only good thing she could say that was her mom, while being a lousy, neglectful mother most of the time, she had at least not been physically or verbally abusive. And she had never stood for any of her boyfriends to be abusive to Angie either. One guy that she had hooked up with had gotten into an argument with Angie about something or other and called Angie a bitch. Donna had thrown all his clothes and belongings onto the lawn in ten minutes flat.

Angie had spent a lot of time roaming the neighborhood as her mother was out drinking or on a drug binge and one day, she had met Evelyn Mercer walking up the sidewalk towards Angie's house with all her boys in tow intent on welcoming them to the neighborhood. Angie had made up some excuse as to why her mom wasn't home, but she had the feeling by the time Miss Evelyn and her brood had gone home that the older woman saw right through her.

Afterwards, Miss Evelyn was always inviting Angie to come over for dinner and to learn things like cooking and knitting. Angie, usually a tough nut to crack when it came to covering up for her mom, cracked like an egg after only two weeks of Miss Evelyn's gentle questioning.

Angie had poured her heart out to the older woman. Telling her how her dad was a drunk that would beat her mom every time she didn't move fast enough for his liking and how it took her mom until the first time he had hit Angie to find the strength to leave him. She knew that her mom loved her in her own way and in a way Angie felt responsible for Donna. Donna had always judged her own worth as a woman by the man that she had. It was like her mom thought she wasn't a real woman unless there was a man in her bed, and it could be any man. She had not been that picky in her daughter's opinion.

She was sympathetic to Angie's feelings of not wanting to be taken away from her mom, so she had tried time and again to help Donna get into a rehab program, and it worked for a while. But before long, Donna would be back to the bar or the local dealers.

The boy's had been a little standoffish with her for a few weeks, not knowing what to do with a girl that actually _liked_ to wear dresses and have her hair look pretty, but when Bobby had said something to push her buttons, like he always did to people, she punched him in the face hard enough to loosen his teeth. The two of them got along like a house on fire after that, Bobby going so far as to introduce her to people as his little sister. He liked the fact that even though she was a girly-girl, she didn't take shit from no one and never hesitated to stand up for herself.

While Angel and Bobby were her protectors all through their teenage years and Jerry was the one she always went to for fatherly advice, by the time she was fourteen, she knew that it was Jack that held her heart. By the time she was sixteen, he had asked her to be his girl and less than a year later, she had lost her virginity to him.

Jack had always been the quiet Mercer, he was more sensitive to the feelings of others than either Bobby or Angel. He had always been the one to spot within minutes when she was scared or angry or sad and he would try to cheer her up by doing or saying something stupid. Or even by just singing her a song.

Angie sighed heavily as she absentmindedly rubbed a hand over her heart. Drawing her jacket tighter around her, she threw the burnt cigarette butt into the snow and dug in her pocket for her pack. Lighting another one, she drew deeply on it and looked up at the night sky as she willed the tears not to fall as she remembered their first time together. He had been so gentle and so patient. She knew that he had had sex plenty of times before, and she had been glad on one hand that he had known what he was doing, but on the other hand, she had been jealous of all the girls that had had him before. When she had told him how she felt about it, he had grabbed her face with both hands and told her that those girls didn't matter, that they had not been her. That he had not loved them like he did her. Seeing the truth and the love in his eyes had convinced her of that, so she had never brought the subject up again.

Their relationship had not been without fights and misunderstandings. Jack was surprisingly possessive about her. He didn't like any guys that were not his brothers near her, a fact that more than one boy in their school had found out quickly on the receiving end of Jackie's fists. When she had had enough and accused Jack of not trusting her, it had been Bobby that had sat her down after a big blow up where she had thrown Jack's guitar down the stairs and explained to her while she had blushed furiously that Jack was so possessive because it was important to him that he had been her first. Bobby had went on to tell her that for guys, it was a powerful thing for them to know that the girl they loved had never been with anyone else, that the knowledge that they had done things to their girl that no other guy had made the caveman come out in all of them. By this time, she had buried her face in the couch cushion as she thought Bobby knew everything that she and Jackie had done together while Bobby just laughed and told her to go easy on his little brother.

Her musings were cut short as the sound of firecrackers split the night. One could not live in Detroit for long and not know the sound of a gunshot. She had just instinctively crouched and started to run into the house when a boxer clad Angel dragging his old girlfriend Sofie, who was in her underwear, around the corner at a run. Without thinking, she called, "Angel!" and beckoned him and the shivering girl into her house. With a quick look behind him to see is the car that was chasing them was getting closer, he dragged Sofie through the front door.

Angie closed the door after them and sat back down on the top step. A split second later, a car came peeling around the corner and the driver leaned out the window. "Yo! You seen a guy and girl around here?"

Pointing a finger in a vague direction, Angie tried to look innocent, something she was remarkably good at, and said "Yeah, they went through the backyard over there."

The driver waved his thanks and took off. Angie waited a few minutes before she went inside. Angel and Sofie were sitting at the kitchen table trying to catch their breath. Angel got up when she came in and pulled her into his arms with a bellow of "Pipsqueak! How the hell ya been girl?"

She grinned up at him as she answered, "Just fine Angel. Still the same old Angel huh? Not even in town a day and already got people trying to kill you. Glad to see the Marines haven't made you lose your edge. And don't call me Pipsqueak!" she finished sternly, knowing that no matter how many times she told them, the Mercer boys would always call her Pipsqueak. Jerry had started it because she had been a tiny thing when they met and the name still stuck.

Noticing Sofie shivering, she grabbed the older girl by the hand and said, "Come on honey, let's get some clothes on you before you die of pneumonia." Gesturing in the direction of the cupboards, she added "Angel, there's coffee or hot chocolate in the cupboard. Make something for her while we go upstairs will ya?" Angel nodded, thinking that something hot to drink sounded like a very good idea after being chased for blocks through a Detroit winter. Angie led her to her bedroom so Sofie could choose what she wanted to wear. Angie's clothes would be small on her, but it was only for the walk around the block to the Mercer place.

"How have you been chica?" Sofie asked in her Spanish accent, "Have you seen Jackie yet?"

Angie sat on the bed as Sofie flicked through her clothes and sighed, "Yes. And it was even worse than I imagined it would be. He hates me." She said forlornly. Her silvery blue gaze hardened slightly as Sofie sat down to pull on a pair of boots, "Sofie, I gotta ask you not to say anything to Jack about…."

"I know. I wouldn't do that to you." Sofie answered softly as she put a hand over Angie's in a show of support, "It's you that has to tell him."

Angie smiled at the girl Bobby always called La Vida Loca. Yeah, she was kinda crazy, but underneath all the drama she was a good friend to have. "You know this means you can't tell Angel either right?" she asked.

Sofie nodded. If Angel knew it would only be a matter of time till Jack found out. Angel would not be able to resist saying something about it. This was between Jack and Angie and it was Angie's place to tell Jack what she wanted him to know. "How is Sebastian?"

Angie smiled and answered, "Just fine thanks."

With that, the two women went down to join Angel in the kitchen. He had the hot chocolate made and had wandered around staring at the pictures of Sebastian that decorated the fridge. Noticing his tense stance, Angie asked timidly, "Uh…Angel?"

He swirled around to face her and put the cup in his hand down with a loud thud as he asked in a voice that was tight with anger, "Angie, does Jack know?"

Her eyes widened in shock as she stuttered, "Umm, know about what?"

"Don't play dumb with me girl." Angel practically snarled as he stared her down, "You know that I know you are not stupid. Does. Jack. Know?"

She tried to brush it off as she said offhandedly, "He knows I have a son. He met Sebastian at Jerry's house after the funeral."

She tried to pretend that was all there was to know as she busied herself pouring her and Sofie cups of hot chocolate. She could literally _feel _Angel's eyes boring a hole in the back of her head, but he waited until she had taken a mouth full of the hot drink, the bastard, to say, "Sure, but does he know that Sebastian is his?"

Sofie clapped her on the back as she started to choke on the hot chocolate while yelling at Angel in Spanish that he was a bastard for doing that. Once Angie had recovered herself, she squeaked, "What? What are you…" noticing the seriousness on the face of Angel, she sighed in defeat and asked, "How did you know?"

"Kinda hard to miss seeing as the kid looks just like him, but with your nose." Angel mocked. "Does he know?"

Angie took a fresh cup that Sofie had just poured for her before she answered quietly without meeting Angels eye's this time, "No. He doesn't know and you can't tell him Angel."

"What!?" Angel gasped, "He's got a kid that he don't know about, and you think this is something I can keep from my own brother?"

"Yes." Angie tilted her chin up in defiance as she looked the big man in the eye.

Angel shook his head and asked almost pleadingly, "Don't you think that a man has a right to know that he is a father Ang? I remember when you and Jack were together, he had it all planned out. He would go and make himself a rock star and then the two of you would get married and have kids and a white-picked-fucking fence. He had even daydreamed about what your kid's names would be and what they would look like. When he caught you with that asshole, he was devastated. Devastated Angie! A family is all that boy has wanted since he was small, and you are gonna sit here and keep that from him?" He shook his head again disbelievingly and then said with his voice harder than she had ever heard it, "If you don't tell him, I will!"

Angie slammed her cup down as she spat, "No! I'm gonna tell him Angel, but I have to be the one that does it! Not you and not Jerry!"

"Jerry knows about this shit?" Angel yelled, "And how long has he known?"

All the fight went out of her and she slumped on the table with her head in her hands as she said, "Not that long. Look Angel, I _will _tell Jack, but with his feeling about me the way he does, I have to wait till the right time."

"Well why the hell didn't you tell him from the beginning Ang?" Angel asked, trying to understand. "What was that shit with Derek? How could you do that to Jack?"

"It's a long story." She sniffled and ran a hand over her face then looked at him, "I swear, I'm gonna tell him."

Angel frowned, but nodded. "Alright then. I won't ask any more questions just yet. But you should know that he's not gonna stay in Detroit without a reason too." He looked at her meaningfully. Standing up, he said more like his old self, "Sofie and I gotta get home now, but I'll be back soon to talk." He smiled at her showing his impossibly white teeth, "And to get to know my little nephew. Man, I'm an uncle…ain't that some shit?"

Angie laughed and said, "What about Jerry's girls? What are they, aliens?"

"Nah, but they're girls. A boy is a whole different ballgame honey." He teased.

Angie put her hands on her hips in the manner of pissed off women everywhere and warned, "Don't you go thinking you can teach him shit about women Angel. I will not have my son turned into Angel Mercer's little minnie-me."

Angel just laughed, "Would you rather Bobby did?"

Angie rolled her eyes as she walked with the couple to the door, "God forbid!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Angie buried her head in the pillow at the pounding coming from the front door. Cracking open an eye, she hoped whoever it was would die on the doorstep for waking her up at whatever ungodly hour of the morning it was.

After Angel and Sofie had left, she had locked up the house and gone to bed, only to lay there for hours, tossing and turning as she thought about the past and all the wrong choices she had made. At this point in her life, she knew she had been horribly wrong to push Jack away in the way she had, but at the time, it had seemed like she was doing what was the best for the both of them.

Instead, she had only ended up hurting them all. Jack, Sebastian and herself. She had cheated her baby out of knowing his father and she had cheated Jack out of being there for his son in the way that she knew he would have been. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like Jack would never forgive her, and she didn't even deserve his forgiveness if she was being honest with herself.

She was brought back to the present as the pounding continued. Thanking God that Sebastian was spending the night at Jerry's as she got out of bed and went to answer the door, she was pulled up short to see Bobby through the glass.

Wordlessly, she stepped back for him to come in. "Good God girl! Took your ass long enough to answer the door. Do you know how fucking cold it is with me standing out there for the last twenty minutes?" He grumbled at her as he took off his jacket and sat down at the kitchen table. Noticing her rumbled form still glaring owlishly at him, he snorted and asked innocently, "Late night?"

Shaking herself and going to start the coffee, she waited until she was seated across from him before saying, "You could say that. I kept Angel from getting his nuts blown off by Sofie's now-ex-boyfriend."

"Yeah, she was there this morning." Bobby said disgustedly. "Now she'll never leave."

Angie smiled at him as she went to pour them both a cup. "You know Bobby, it wouldn't kill you to be a little nicer to her. She's really not that bad as long as you aren't _trying_ to piss her off."

Bobby waved a dismissive hand as he drank his coffee, "She still is and always will be a crazy bitch."

"Oh, and I assume that means you are perfectly sane Bobby Mercer." Angie teased.

Bobby merely grinned at her. They drank their coffee for a while until Bobby decided she had enough caffeine in her to be reasonable. He had learned long ago that to do or say anything to her that was likely to piss her off before she had her morning cup of coffee was to take the chance of ending up with her wearing your balls for earrings. And Bobby Mercer liked his balls exactly where they were thank you very much.

As she relaxed against the back of the chair, he pounced, "So, tell me about your son and whether or not he is Jack's."

Angie groaned as she said to no one in particular, "What? Is there a sign on the corner that says 'Angie Montgomery got knocked up by Jack Mercer and never told him.', or should I just take an ad out in the Free Press?"

Bobby didn't look too shocked as he asked, "So it _is_ his kid?"

Angie sighed yet again as she said, "Yes. Jack is the father of my son and no, I never told him." She was tired. Tired of hiding the truth from damn near everyone that had known about her and Jack. Jerry and Camille knew, Angel and Sofie knew, now Bobby. What was the point of waiting until she found the right time to tell Jack? At this rate, everyone in Detroit _except _Jack would know the truth by the end of the fucking week.

"Why not? Didn't you think it was something he would want to know Ang? Something he deserved to know?" Bobby asked her far more gently than most people would give him credit for. That was something she loved about him. He was a tough guy, but when it came to the women in his life that he loved, like her and Miss Evelyn, he was a big fucking teddy bear. Not that anyone would believe it if she told them.

She hung her head and contemplated the cup in her hands as she said softly, "Of course Bobby."

"Then what the fuck happened? One minute, you two were totally in love and planning to move to New York and the next, I hear that you cheated on Jack and he caught you in bed with that dickhead Derek." He asked seriously, letting a trace of the anger he had felt on behalf of his little brother show through, "What the fuck happened Angie? I could have sworn on a stack of bibles and on Ma's life that you would never, _ever_ cheat on Jack with anyone, and let me tell you, I don't have that high of an opinion about many women except you and Ma, and maybe Camille. I still don't believe it so I'm asking you to explain to me what the fuck happened."

She got up and looked around for her cigarettes as she gathered her thoughts. Once she found them, she lit up and sat back down at the table after bring the whole coffee pot from the counter. Finally she began, "Do you remember the last Christmas we were all together?"

"Yeah. Jackie bought you that bracelet with the charms on it." Bobby answered wondering what the fuck Christmas had to do with it.

Angie nodded and went on, "That when he told you all about our plans to move to New York after graduation." Bobby merely nodded for her to go on, "I hated the fact that Jack was working so much bussing tables in order to save enough for us to go, but it was exciting you know? Thinking about being in New York and together. He would be with the band playing gigs and trying to get a record deal, and I would get a job doing something so we wouldn't be completely broke."

"You could have been a model darlin'." Bobby interrupted fondly, "You are certainly good looking enough." He knew she would have been big if she had decided to try it. She was a very beautiful girl with her long dark blonde hair with reddish highlights, her huge silver eyes that were sometimes greenish and sometimes a more blueish color and full red lips that never needed any lipstick, all set in a pale heart-shaped face. And that wasn't even getting into how hot her body was. She had curves that would literally make men drool after her, until one of the Mercer boys put their fist in their eyes at least. Bobby always thought privately that Jack was one lucky motherfucker that he was the only one she loved like that.

She waved a hand to dismiss the compliment. She was never one to overly worry about her looks. Getting her story back on track, she said, "That May, a couple of weeks before graduation, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I fainted in the doctor's office when he told us, so they took some tests and found out I was pregnant."

Bobby inhaled sharply. He was beginning to understand.

Angie plowed on, "I knew that I should tell Jack about the baby, but I was scared. How could I just take off to New York and this new life with Jack when my mom was slowly dying?" She wiped at the tears falling from her eyes as she looked at Bobby's sympathetic gaze, "The doctor told us that she had waited too long for them to be able to do anything about it. It was inoperable. And Jack? I knew that if I told him about the baby and about my mom, he would decide to stay here and take care of us, but then how could I let him give up his dreams? He had been talking about New York forever. I was afraid that if I told him, he would end up staying in Detroit and eventually, he would resent the fact that he had to give up everything he wanted to take care of a family that he didn't plan for. I just couldn't live with the idea that he would eventually hate me for making him do that. So I called Derek and he came straight over. He isn't as bad as you guys think he is you know." She shook her head sadly, "He spent two whole days trying to talk me out of this plan I had come up with to make Jack so angry that he would break it off with me without looking back."

"So Derek tried to make you tell Jack about the baby?" Bobby asked for clarification.

Angie nodded, "I knew that Jack was going to come over that day, so I made Derek sleep in my bed with me. When Jack saw us together, he was so furious he didn't even realize that we were still dressed in our pajamas. He just pulled Derek out of the bed and started beating the shit out of him."

Bobby shifted forwards on his elbows as he said, "Well Angie, can you really blame him? I mean, Jack spent a good three months completely sure that Derek was trying to steal you from him."

Angie shook her head, "Derek never felt like that about me Bobby. Never."

"Come on sweetie, I'm not stupid you know. No red-blooded guy would have been able to be that close to a beautiful girl like you without wanting more." Bobby scoffed.

Angie smirked as she said succinctly, "They would if they were gay Bobby. You were more Derek's type than I ever was."

At Bobby's wide eyed stare and gaping expression, she started laughing her ass off. After she fell out of the chair holding her sides, he said disgustedly, "Hey, it's not funny!" which of course, only made her laugh harder.

Waiting with a scowl on his face for her to calm down, he went to the fridge and took out a beer. By the time he opened it and threw the cap in the trash as he sat back down, she was back in the chair and a little calmer. They were silent for a few minutes as they both thought. Finally, Bobby said, "You fucked up sweetheart. You should have told Jackie Boy _everything _the day you found out." She opened her mouth to remind him again of her reasons not to and he held up his hand in a silencing gesture as he shook his head, "No. You should have told him. Yes, he would have dropped the plan to go and he would have stayed, but do you think that any success he had in New York would be anything to him without you there with him? He loved you Angie, more than any guy I have ever known can love a woman. He would have stayed and maybe he wouldn't have been a rock star, but he would still have been happy as long as he had you."

At Angie's shamefaced look, Bobby drove the point home, "That boy would not hesitate to jump in front of a bullet for you because he loves you that much. He still does you know." Angie looked at him with eyes full of hope and he smiled reassuringly, "Yeah, you heard me. He still loves you. He's plenty pissed though. Do you know that the idea that he might be the father of your kid hasn't even crossed his mind yet?" After all, it was going to be a fight just to get Jack to agree to be in the same room as her, never mind to actually get him to listen. Bobby didn't want Angie to get her hopes up that it would be easy.

Listen to him…just call him Oprah. He shuddered with the thought.

"Somehow Bobby, I doubt that's true anymore." She said with a shake of her head. When he looked at her skeptically, she added, "He made a point to tell me at Jerry's house that you would fuck me and then dump me."

Bobby's eyes flashed angrily, but he let that slide for now as he asked, "So where is my little nephew?"

"He spent the night with Jerry's girls. I have to go get him in a couple of hours" she answered looking at the clock. They talked a little more and Bobby swore he was going to kick Jerry and Angel's asses for not telling him about their nephew, at which point she told him that Evelyn had found out as well when she had had enough of Angie's avoidances of the topic a month before she died.

"No shit!" Bobby exclaimed before turning thoughtful, "So that's why…"

"That's why what?" Angie asked curiously.

Bobby hesitated to tell her, but told her anyway, "Last night at dinner, Jackie said something about Ma calling him a month ago, trying to get him to come home for a visit." He noticed her narrowed eyed look and hurried to say, "You know Ma, she was probably just trying to get the two of you to talk so that you could tell Jackie about her grandson."

"Interfering woman." Angie muttered with a sad, fond smile, "God, I'm gonna miss her."

"Yeah, me too." Bobby said forlornly. She patted his arm in support and he stood up and announced, "Well, I gotta go. Jackie is cooking dinner and then me and the boys are going to play some Turkey Cup. Want to come?"

Angie laughed. She told him that she didn't think it was a good idea to spring her on Jack right now and that after she and Sebastian had dinner with Camille and the girls, she had to go to work. He was appalled that she was working on Thanksgiving Day, but she merely shrugged her shoulders and that was that. No one that lived around here was in a position to turn down work when it came, something he knew only too well. Instead, he asked her where she worked and she told him that she had been working under the table waitressing at Johnny G's for a few months alongside her job at the same restaurant she had worked at since she was sixteen, but that the restaurant was closed for renovations.

She shivered to herself as she closed the door after hugging him goodnight. She didn't like the gleam in his brown eyes as he left.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A couple of days later, she was tending the bar at Johnny's when all four Mercers walked in. She groaned and rolled her eyes at Bobby as he smirked in her direction with a 'What?' gesture of his hands and his shoulders. Her gaze flicked behind him as Jack walked in, took one look at her and started to look as if he had been sucking on a lemon.

She didn't have to put up with this shit. Taking off her small apron that she wore, she threw it on the bar and yelled for Johnny, "Hey Johnny! Some customers up front. I'm taking my break." And walked into the back room as the owner came behind the bar to serve the boys.

The door had barely closed behind her before it flew back open and smacked her on the ass. "Angie, don't be like this man." Bobby tried to cajole her. "I didn't know you would be working tonight and you know that we always come to see Johnny whenever any of us are in town."

She spun at him and thumped him on the chest with a small fist, ignoring his indignant 'Ow!' as she spat, "So this has nothing to do with you wanting me to tell Jack as soon as possible?"

Straightening his expression, his eyes hardened warningly as he said, "I promised you that I would let you have the chance to tell him Pipsqueak, but I didn't take you for a pussy."

"What!" she almost screeched.

Bobby folded his muscled arms over his chest as he said, "You are procrastinating. You know you could have come over to the house and _made_ it a good time to tell him everything, but instead, you are pussyfooting around. If you don't hurry up and tell him sweetheart, he's going to leave town and I for one, am not gonna let him go without knowing the truth!"

"Are you threatening to tell him Bobby?" Angie hissed dangerously.

Bobby shook his head and said, "I guess I am. He has to know and if you don't have the balls to tell him, I will. So bring your pretty ass back out there and come have a drink with us. While you're doing that, ask Jack to talk to you alone 'cause you have something to tell him and then _tell him_!" With that, he walked back out of the room closing the door behind him to let her stew in private.

She paced around the tiny room as she wrung her hands. When Johnny came in the back, he noticed straight off that something was wrong, so he told her to go sit down and have a drink, that it wasn't so busy that he needed both her and the new girl Naomi for the rest of the night.

She hurried through the door, not looking at the bar where Jack and his brothers sat as she went into the women's bathroom. Nervously checking to make sure she looked alright, just because she was in no way vain, didn't mean she wanted to look like a hag either, she soothed out the wrinkles in her black tank top and skinny jeans that she had paired with her favorite pair of knee-high black boots that day.

She finally left the bathroom and made her way through to reach behind the bar and grab her jacket. Bobby, Jerry and Angel she noticed, were watching her very closely as if daring her to make a run for the door. Knowing them, if she did, they would just throw her over their shoulder and drag her back anyway. She took one last deep breath as she told herself, '_This is it. It's now or never girl, so do what they all told you and put your big girl panties on and tell the love of your life that he is your baby's daddy.' _

With her nerves strangely calm, she walked over to stand beside the stool that Bobby sat on and said brightly, "Hi guys!"

She heard a snort come from Jack but ignored it as she asked Angel, "Where is Sofie?"

"La Vida Loca is at home." Bobby answered for his brother. While Angel shook his head in exasperation as he said, "Come on man, drop the La Vida Loca shit already."

As they bickered back and forth, she started making small talk with Jerry while being very conscious of Jack on the other side of her. After a few minutes, the group moved to a table at Johnny's urging. Johnny came over to the table to offer his condolences, "Fucking gangs, worms. Somebody aught to step on them." He said.

"Which gang Johnny G?" Bobby asked in a deceptively casual tone.

In a flash, she knew where the conversation was headed. She was just too stupid and too caught up in her own private drama to realize it. Angie should have known this was going to happen the minute Bobby and Angel hit town. The Mercer boys were out for blood, or at least three of them were, and somebody was going to end up floating in the river by the time it was all said and done. The thought that it could be Jack made her chest hurt as if someone just reached in and started squeezing her heart as hard as they could. Angie broke out in a cold sweat and the roaring in her ears drowned out the conversation going around at the table.

She felt sick. Suddenly lurching to her feet and ignoring the concerned questions around her, she made it to the bathroom just in time to lose the few mouthfuls of spaghetti she had made Sebastian that night before the babysitter showed up. She heard Jerry knock on the door as she was rinsing out her mouth and ask her if she was alright and she called back that she was fine, that she just ate something that didn't agree with her. The silence on the other side of the closed bathroom door told her plainly that Jerry didn't believe her, but he didn't argue. He called back that he was heading home and he would see her later. She opened the door and gave him a hug before he left.

She went back to the table just in time to hear them planning to go talk to some gang members that were having a party at an abandoned warehouse. Overcome with the need to keep an eye on Jack, she insisted on going. Jack automatically broke out in a "HELL NO!" while Bobby gave her a telling look and walked out of the bar without a word.

She and Jack argued hotly all the way to her car, which was conveniently parked right next to Bobby's before Angel grabbed Jack by the back of his jacket and stuffed him into the car. Bobby grabbed her by the arm as she went to climb into the backseat with Jack and pulled her away where they would not be overheard.

"Angie, you can't get mixed up in this. You know why. You have your boy to think about now." Bobby stated finally.

Angie ripped her arm out of his grip, but he only grabbed her again as she cried, "What if something happens to him Bobby? What will I do then?"

"Nothing is going to happen Ang, and would it matter to you if it did?" A deep voice asked softly behind her. Bobby and Angie both turned around to look and saw Jack standing there in the snow covered parking lot with his hands in the pocket of his leather jacket. His eyes were fixed on hers and for the first time since he came back, there was no anger or bitterness in his blue eyes. What she saw there was hope.

Bobby backed away to give them some privacy as she answered him just as softly, "It would kill me if something happened to you Jackie." When she saw the tears well up in his eyes, she started crying harder. As she sobbed, something happened that she thought would ever happen again. Jack pulled her into his strong arms and held her tight, whispering soothing words in her ear as he stroked her hair with one hand.

After a long time, he pulled away from her long enough to wipe the tears off of her face with his thumbs as he said, "You can't get involved Angie. I can't have anything happen to you either and you have Sebastian to think about." She opened her mouth to tell him. Tell him all about why she had hurt him and about their little boy that reminded her so much of him, but he silenced her with a finger over her mouth as he asked, "Where is Sebastian by the way?"

Thrown off track by his question, she answered, "At home with the babysitter, why?"

He hugged her again before pulling back from her once more, and grabbing her face between his hands, "We will drive you back to your house to get him and then we will take you to our place. Me, Bobby and Angel are going to go take care of this and then when I get home, you and I are going to have a very long talk." There was a look in his eye that warned her that she dared not argue with him, so she nodded and meekly let him lead her to Bobby's car. She got into the backseat as Jack explained to his older brothers where they were to take her.

The drive to her house was made in silence, Jack not letting go of her hand the whole way. Just as they pulled in front of her house, Bobby told her they would go get her car in the morning. Jack came in with her to send Kiesha, the girl from down the street she always hired to watch Sebastian, home. Jack stood in the doorway of Sebastian's room, never taking his eyes off of her as she quietly gathered a change of clothes and a toothbrush for her son.

As she bent down to pick Sebastian up out from his bed where he was sound asleep, Jack hurried forward and whispered, "I'll get him, you go get some stuff for you too."

She nodded and went into her room to gather the extra large t-shirt she always wore to bed and a pair of boy shorts and a couple of extra pairs of shirts, jeans and socks. Grabbing her own toothbrush out of the bathroom, she met Jack at the top of the stairs where he waited holding a blanket wrapped Sebastian as if he was afraid he would drop him. Her heart melted a little at the sight of their son sleeping in his fathers arms for the first time.

They went back out to the car and Jack gently handed Sebastian to her after she got in so he could climb his thin tall body in after her. Within five minutes, they were back at the Mercer house and getting back out. They all piled into the quiet house and Angel made a comment that Sofie must be sleeping. Bobby whispered in Jack's ear and he nodded before heading up the stairs while Bobby went into the living room.

She followed Jack up to Bobby's old bedroom and watched him gently put Sebastian into bed, standing there for a few seconds brushing Sebastian's cheek with one long finger before straightening up and grabbing her hand to pull her out of the room.

They went back downstairs without saying a word to see Bobby and Angel waiting for them by the front door with their coats still on. Jack felt it when her hand tightened around his and he pulled her into his arms once more as he shot a look at his brothers. They went out to the car as Jack stood there holding her. Eventually, he cleared his throat and said, "I gotta go Ang."

"I know." She whispered, her voice choked with emotion. "Be careful Jack, please."

His arms tightened around her as he answered, "I will. Go wait in my room. This shouldn't take too long."

As they pulled away from each other, Jack leaned down and kissed her softly, chastely on the lips. Staring into her eyes one more time he said, "Wait up for me."

"I will." She promised.

He smiled that sweet smile that melted her at the knees every time she saw it and left. She took off her coat and hung it on the rack between the door and the stairs. Grabbing the small bag that she had forgotten to leave in Bobby's room, she checked on Sebastian one last time before going into the bathroom and brushing her teeth. Once she was done, she decided to wait in Jack's room like she promised, but then the door to Angel's room flew open and both women gasped and jumped in surprise at the sight of the other.

Holding a hand to her heart, Angie gasped, "Good God Sofie! I thought you were sleeping. You almost gave me a freakin' heart attack!"

Sofie, who was holding a hand over her own heart gasped something in Spanish that sounded like a prayer before switching to English, "Sorry Angie. I was sleeping, but Angel woke me up when he came in. I wanted to check on you."

With a toothy grin, she pulled Angie into Jack's room and pushed her excitedly down to sit on the bed as she asked with a big grin, "So, you told him?"

Angie smiled and shook her head, "No not yet. But he said we were going to talk tonight when he gets back."

Sofie pouted a bit before saying sincerely, "I was hoping that you being here meant that you had told him everything and that you and him were back together. You know, with Sebastian…a real family." Angie got all teary eyed again and Sofie told her, "Jack is still in love with you. We all know that. Anyone who sees the way he looks at you can tell, even if you can't."

Angie reached out and hugged the older girl as she sobbed, "You are the best Sofie, don't let anyone ever tell you different…even Bobby."

The two hugging girls drew apart as another voice intruded on their heart to heart, "Aww shit! Jack! You better get your skinny ass up here! La Vida Loca has her claws in Angie!" Bobby yelled.

Angie sprang up and threw an empty beer can at him, hitting him on the side of the head as she hissed, "Shh! Sebastian is sleeping Bobby! I swear to god, if you wake him up, YOU will be the one to sing him the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' song until he finally goes back to sleep our you stab yourself in the eardrums to get that fucking song out of your head!"

"Yeah Bobby!" Jack laughed as he elbowed a horrified looking Bobby out of the way.

The mood turned serious as Angie asked, "So what did you guys find out?"

Bobby and Jack shared an uneasy look as Bobby replied, "The witness was a set up." He went on to explain to the two women as they grew more horrified all that the little gangster wanna-be had told them and how they had checked to make sure the lights on the courts went out a full hour before the shooting happened. He told them that it was what was called a questionable kill. How sometimes, hit-men covered their tracks by paying off a witness to lead the police in the wrong direction.

"Why would anyone want to kill the sweetest old lady in the goddamn world?" Angie asked mystified.

"I don't know Angie, I don't know" Bobby sighed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jack followed Bobby back downstairs for a minute after telling Angie to wait for him in his room. With her mind reeling with questions about what they had learned, Angie didn't even think to say no. Instead she lay down on Jack's bed and tried to think of a possible reason that someone would want Evelyn Mercer dead.

By the time Bobby, Jack and Angel were done making plans, Jack hurried back to his room to find Angie sound asleep in his bed. He stood there against the back of the closed door and just watched her sleep for a while. He smiled at the sight. He had thought about her a lot over the last four years, not as much as he had thought about her the last few days though.

He was still angry at her for cheating on him and breaking his heart, but with all this shit going on about Ma's death going through his mind, and when she insisted on going with them to the warehouse, he realized that it was nothing that he could never forgive her for when faced with the real possibility of her getting hurt. He and Bobby and Angel had talked about it on the way home from the warehouse and they all agreed that Sofie and Angie, especially Angie seeing as she had a kid to think about, had to be kept out of this as much as possible.

The three of them had even considered sending the girls away until this was all settled, but Angel quickly shot that idea down by pointing out that neither Sofie nor Angie were the type to do what they were told, and chances were that either one of them was kept completely out of the loop, they were bound to do something that would put them in even more danger. Neither Bobby nor Jack could argue with that.

The three of them did agree that Angie and Sebastian should stay at their house as it would be easier for them to keep an eye on her and Sebastian. Jack was relieved that Bobby and Angel agreed so readily, he did not like the idea of her and her son being in their house alone when it was possible that someone put a hit out on Evelyn.

After all, if the murder of their mother was meant as a threat or a warning against one of the Mercer brothers, that meant that the killers had to know a hell of a lot about the family and everyone knew how much Jack had loved Angie. The thought of someone targeting her because of him or his brothers make his gut roll.

Besides, once he got the answers he was after, Jack had a lot of hope that him and Angie could make things work out between them. Jack could not find it in his heart to hold the fact that Sebastian was fathered by someone else against him. Sebastian was an innocent in all this and Jack felt an overwhelming urge to protect the boy. It didn't look as if the kid's dad was in the picture anyway, so it would not be that hard for Jack to imagine Sebastian as his.

He wasn't eighteen anymore and looking to get away from all the bad memories that Michigan held for him. It hadn't taken him a month in New York before he realized that success didn't mean shit without his girl by his side. Although at the time, he was not ready to admit that he still loved her, deep down he knew it was true when any relationship he had, the woman was always compared to Angie and come out lacking.

With a tender look in his eyes, Jack crossed the room to his bed and gingerly sat down so as not to wake up his own private sleeping beauty. After noticing the dark circles under her eyes, he decided that their talk could wait. Hell, with all this shit going on, their talk could wait till it was all over as far as he was concerned. It was enough for him that she was here, laying next to him…where she belonged.

He quietly stood up and stripped to his underwear. He carefully scooted into the bed and pulled her into his arms. She snuggled closer to him and threw an arm across his chest as she pillowed her head into his shoulder with a mumble and he shushed her as he stroked her hair and arm.

"Jack?" she mumbled sleepily, "Are you okay?"

He thought about it for a minute before saying, "Not really Angie." As she started to sit up so they could have the talk he said he wanted, he pulled her back down and whispered, "I know I said we had to talk Ang, but right now, with mom's death and finding out she was murdered." He choked back tears and rubbed his eyes before recovering himself, "I just—I need you to be with me Angie. I can't deal with our past right now. We will talk about it, but can we wait for now and just be together? I just need you to be with me. To stay close to me—please?"

She looked at him with her eyes full of sympathy and understanding as she gave him a small smile and a nod. She lay back down with her head on his shoulder once again and held him for the rest of the night, tracing his tattoos with a fingertip. As he slowly relaxed into an uneasy sleep, she breathed in his scent. To her, it didn't matter if he smelled of sweat like he did after a gig with his band, he always smelled perfect to her. A mixture of cigarettes, soap and musk and something else, something distinctively Jack.

She woke up the next morning as Jack kissed her neck softly. She noticed when she reluctantly opened her eyes that he was already up and dressed to go somewhere. She made a soft snuffle of disappointment when she realized that he was no longer lying beside her.

Jack smiled at her as he lovingly kissed her on her forehead and caressed her cheek as he said, "Don't get up. We are meeting Jerry to go and talk to the guy that owns the store were Ma was—." He stopped, fighting back the grief he felt.

She cupped the side of his face with a hand as she said, "Its okay Jack."

Jack pressed her hand against his face and then kissed it. Looking into her eyes, he leaned down and softly kissed her lips. When she responded enthusiastically, he ran his tongue over her top lip and groaned when she opened her mouth to him. He lay down on top of her as he slid his tongue into her mouth and she reveled in the feel of his body flush against her. She slid her hands down his back and under the long-sleeved thermal shirt he was wearing, feeling the pull of his lean muscles under his skin.

Sliding one knee between her legs, Jack carefully wedged her legs apart and fitted himself against the cradle of her thighs. She moaned softly as she felt his huge erection against her as she grew wetter and wetter. She had just thrust her hips up towards him, causing him to release his own moan when they both stiffened at the small voice coming from the still open door.

"Mommy?" Sebastian rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Why is that man on top of you?"

Jack and Angie looked at each other with dumbfounded expressions.

"Are you wrestlin'?" the three year old asked innocently, "Like when Unca Jerry does wif Aunt Camille?"

A smirking Bobby stepped up behind the boy and asked mockingly, "Yeah, are you westling like Uncle Jerry and Aunt Camille?"

"Uh, something like that sweetie." Angie answered her son as she restrained a whimper of disappointment when Jack carefully levered himself off of her.

Sebastian frowned as he thought about it and then asked hopefully, "Will you have a baby like Aunt Camille?"

"Huh?" came from both Jack and Angie as both of their jaws similtainously dropped while Bobby guffawed.

Sebastian climbed onto the bed between this mother and the tall, but nice man he met at Uncle Jerry's and explained to the two shocked faces near him, "Danielle said that once when she saw Unca Jerry and Aunt Camille wrestlin' and then later they brought Amelia to live wif them. That would be nice, I want a brother though, can you bring me one if you finish westlin'?" He looked at them with a pleading look in his blue eyes.

Angel came up to see what was keeping everyone and heard the last of Sebastian's little brother speech. Angie's jaw had dropped almost to her chest, Jack looked thoughtful and Bobby was holding onto the doorframe to keep from falling down he was laughing so hard. Trying to hold back his own chuckles, Angel said, "You guys ready?"

Jack reached over and closed Angie's mouth with a finger and said, "Yeah, just give me a minute. Is Sofie awake?" Angel nodded, "Can you ask her to make the little man some breakfast while I finish talking to Ang?"

Bobby started howling harder with laughter, "Talking? Or wrestling?" he gasped.

Jack used one hand to push him out of the room and slammed the door in his face, locking it for good measure. He turned to Angie, who he noticed was eyeing him warily. He didn't make any comment about what Sebastian had asked for, instead telling her, "Angie, we want you and Sebastian to stay here for now until we figure out what's going on."

"What, why?" Angie asked with a frown of confusion.

Jack pulled the small desk chair next to the side of the bed and explained, "We know that that there is a good chance that someone deliberately hurt Ma. What we don't know is why. If it was meant as a threat or a warning to any of the rest of us, these people might know a hell of a lot about the Mercer family and if they are competent at all, they would have heard about you and our…past. If they do, they might come after you and Sebastian in order to get to me." He let that sink in before adding, "At least if you and Sebastian stay here, we can protect you better than if you and your son were at your house alone. You see?"

When she didn't say anything, Jack took her hand in his and asked, "Ang?"

Angie was going over it in her mind. It didn't take her long to realize that if this was about one of the brothers, the people that killed Evelyn would not hesitate to use Sebastian against Jack. Too many people knew who Sebastian's father was for comfort. So many people knew the truth that it was actually a little surprising that Jack had never heard about it because really, Sebastian did look like Jack.

When she finally focused on Jack's face and saw the lines of stress and worry there, she smiled softly and agreed. "But Sebastian and I need more of our things Jack."

"When I get back, I'll take you over to your house to pack." He assured her. He stretched out on top of her again and whispered with an impish grin, "Now that that's settled, where were we?"

"Right about here I think." Angie giggled as she ran her hands back under his shirt as he shoved his thin hips back between her thighs and started to rock against her, the bulge of his jean clad erection rubbing against her, making her moan loudly.

Just as his hand snaked its way under her sleep shirt to cup one full breast and tweak the rock hard nipple, they heard Bobby yell, "Yo! Jack!"

He kissed her one last time as Bobby's voice got closer by bellowing up the stairs "Jack! Get your fairy ass down here!"

Angie snickered as Jack growled in his throat, but obeyed the summons anyway. He took a moment to glare at her as she giggled again when he had to adjust his erection before unlocking the door. He growled at her that it was her fault that he had to go get teased by his brothers with a hard-on and she smiled wickedly as she bent her knees a little, splaying her legs and circling one still-hard nipple with a tip of a finger. For a moment, they looked at each other like they used too…before Angie let everything go to shit.

The smile quickly left her face as she scrambled out of the bed, keeping her eyes on the floor as she flushed with shame and guilt. Jack, somehow guessing what had caused the sudden shift of her mood, quickly went to her and tipped her face up for another kiss to show her that everything was alright. She closed her eyes as his lips settled over hers. When she opened them, it was to find that Jack had already gone as she had been savoring his taste that lingered on her lips.

She sighed as she heard the front door slam. She went and brushed her teeth after taking a short shower, grabbing a pair of jeans and some socks from the bag she had packed the night before, she then went back to Jackie's room. Crossing over to the desk, she felt no guilt in riffling through the duffle bag that sat on the floor next to it until she found a dark grey hoodie that smelled like Jack and pulled it on.

She trotted down the stairs to find Sofie serving Sebastian more cereal and teaching him how to sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' in Spanish. She kissed the top of Sebastian's head and greeted Sofie as she made her way to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup.

As Sebastian finished eating, Sofie asked, "Well?"

Angie shook her head and said, "He wasn't in any shape to talk when they come home last night."

"Si, I can see how that would happen."

"I am going to tell him today as soon as they get back. Can you watch Sebastian while I talk to Jack?"

"Si, si."

"Thanks Sofie." Angie smiled.

"No problema" Sofie said, "He's a sweetie."

Angie just beamed with motherly pride. She turned on cartoons for Sebastian as it was Saturday, and she and Sofie decided to clean up the place a little. It wasn't that dirty, Angie had, in the month before she died and after having figured out that Sebastian was her grandson, helped Evelyn do the deep cleaning that Evelyn did every fall. It was like spring cleaning, only in preparation for winter. So they only had the laundry and the dishes as well as light dusting and vacuuming. As they worked, they discussed what was going on and Sofie admitted that Angel had told her to stay at the house so they could protect her as well.

After they were done, they tried to figure out what to make for dinner and decided that a supermarket run was in order. Angie knew that Jack had told her not to leave the house, but she figured that they needed food and Sebastian couldn't wait for his dinner like the rest of them could.

They got Sebastian away from Jack's old guitar that he found in the basement and piled into Angie's old beat up Mustang and headed for Kroger. While they were there, they stocked up on all sorts of fruit and veggies before hitting the meat aisle where they bought plenty of bacon and stewing meat once they took in the sight of the snow falling outside and some little old lady that told them there was a major storm forecast for the next day, as well as lots of snacks and four cases of beer. They knew their Mercer men.

After splitting the bill, which came to almost three hundred bucks, they loaded everything in the car and went back to the house. They were still putting the groceries away when Angie noticed the time and squealed in surprise. She was due to start her shift at Johnny G's in ten minutes.

Frantically thanking Sofie for her offer to watch Sebastian, and ignoring her quietly muttered, "Jack isn't going to like this you know." She grabbed her keys and headed to work.

She rushed into the bar apologizing profusely to Johnny who barely gave her a shrug. "Don't worry Ang. You ain't late and hardly anyone is here tonight anyway. Even going to your favorite bar becomes a chore if you freeze your ass off on the way there." He teased.

She was grateful when her shift ended at two, and after helping Johnny straighten the bar up; she climbed into her car and headed back to the Mercer place. When she pulled up out front, it was to find the boys climbing out of Bobby's car.

"God, I hope you girls made dinner, I am fucking starving!" Bobby exclaimed as he opened her door for her. Angie smiled as she got out of her car and said as they walked towards the house, "Yeah. Sofie and I went to the supermarket before I went to work."

They let themselves into the back door and the smell of the lasagna that Sofie and Angie had made filled the kitchen. While Bobby immediately opened the fridge to check out the contents.

"Ah, I knew there was a reason I loved you Angie." As Bobby headed straight for the beer and chips and Angel started to dish himself up some lasagna.

"Well actually Bobby, Sofie helped ya know." Angie said a little snidely. She was getting pretty sick of Bobby ragging on Sofie so much and if they were all going to be living together, having the two biggest drama queens in the house constantly at each other's throats was going to get real old, real quick.

She gave Jack a questioning look. He had remained silent since they had arrived. She felt a little apprehensive as she noticed the way he was glowering at her. Suddenly, without any warning, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, making her drop her keys, jacket and purse on the kitchen floor.

He ignored her shouts to put her down, as well as the fists pounding his back as he snarled, "Angel, will you and Sofie please go to Angie's house and get some clothes and stuff for Sebastian?"

Angel and Sofie were both wearing matching grins as Bobby laughed his ass off and made a comment about how proud he was that his little brother was now a man. Jack ignored him as he carried his girl back up the stairs. It didn't matter that they had not talked about everything yet, that nothing was settled between them. Angie Montgomery was Jack Mercer's girl, always had been, and always would be now and forever. And by the time he was through with her, she would know it.

Reaching his room, Jack closed and locked the door before finally flipping her onto the bed and launching himself on top of her. Raising himself up to straddle her, he glared as he started to pull of the hoodie she wore, noticing absently that it was his. "I thought I told you not to leave the house Angie?" he hissed dangerously, "Then I come home to find out that you disobeyed me, not once but twice?"

"Fuck you Jack! You do NOT own me!" she spat out as he started undoing her jeans. She was angry that he would pull the caveman act on her like this, even if it really did turn her on. It was a game they would play back when they were together. He would put his foot down about something and she would do it anyway just to piss him off and prove her independance, then he would go all Neanderthal on her leading to amazing, mind-blowing sex. She was pretty darn sure that that was what led to her getting pregnant.

Jack relished the feel of her under him as he roughly pinned her down when she flipped over and tried to crawl away from him. Oh, he knew it was turning her on. He could practically feel the waves of lust rising from her as much as he could feel the heat of her pussy through the front of his jeans. But he didn't want it rough right now. Not after being apart for so long. Flattening himself against her back, he gently pushed her hair aside and softly mouthed the back of her neck.

She stopped struggling instantly, as he knew she would. With a groan and a whimper, she pushed her ass up against him to signal for him to move so she could turn over, which he did. When she turned to face him, He asked her quietly, "Are you sure Ang?" She nodded and their mouths locked together as they hurriedly started to undress one another, running their hands over each other, getting reacquainted with the spots that made their partner moan and shiver, only breaking apart long enough to discard their shirts.

Breaking their kiss, Jack ran his mouth down her neck to her tits where he took one nipple in his mouth, sucking and licking it while one hand plucked the other nipple in the way that he knew drove her wild. She was bigger now than she used to be, and Jack could only think it had been from being pregnant with Sebastian. In retaliation, she smoothed one hand down the front of his body until she wrapped her hand around him. He released her nipple with a resounding pop as he gasped and moaned before reaching his hand into the jeans that she still wore to slide his hand under the edge of her panties.

He brushed her hand away from his body as he trailed open-mouthed kissed down her body to her navel and then ran his tongue along the edge of her purple laced panties. Meeting her heavy-lidded gaze with a look of lustful determination, he sat up and hooked his fingers on her jeans and underwear and pulled them down her long legs.

Kicking the offending garments off, Angie's head cleared enough to say, "Jackie, there is something I gotta tell you." Only to be silenced as his lips covered her own again.

"Shh…" Jack said his deep voice heavy with desire as he gripped her thighs and parted her legs farther, "Talk later, not now!"

"But Jack—." Her words were lost in a long, low moan as he sent her to heaven, "Oh God!" she groaned. She grasped the sheets in a white-knuckled grip and keened. All too soon, she felt the wave of her climax start to rise. It crashed over her like a tsunami, making the sounds that only Jack would know come from the back of her throat. He chuckled to himself as he kissed his way back up her body to her lips. He ran his hands down her body to keep her stimulated as he reached into the drawer of the nightstand only to come up empty.

"Fuckin' Hell!" he swore as he got up out of the small bed and pulled his jeans back on, not bothering to button them.

"What's wrong?" Angie asked breathlessly, completely unable to tear her eyes from the treasure trail of hair that led from his belly button down to the bottom of the open fly on his jeans.

"Goddamn it! I think Angel stole all the rubbers. I gotta go get some from him." He slipped out of the room and she listened as he knocked forcefully on Angel's bedroom door. After a couple of minutes of murmured conversation and a laugh from Angel, Jack reentered the room with a box of condoms in his hand. He shucked off his jeans and got back into the bed with her after removing one condom from the box and then throwing the box onto the nightstand.

He ripped open the little packet and unrolled the condom. He had to stop himself from losing it right then and there when she helped him sheath himself. Finally he was all properly wrapped up and he pushed her over onto her back as he started kissing her again.

Angie felt like she was going to lose her mind if there was one more interruption. They both sighed as he sank himself firmly into her and stayed still. Tears came to her eyes as she thought she had never expected to feel him this way again. It hurt a little because it had been so long for her and he was huge. He was surprisingly well hung for someone so slim.

He licked the tears that escaped off of her face as he whispered, "You okay?" She smiled and nodded. He kissed her again before he started to slowly rock himself in and out of her at a leisurely pace. He swore to himself as she panted in his ear, "Fuck me Jack…fuck me baby." She knew it would drive him wild. He always loved it when she talked dirty to him in bed. She felt the bands of tension wrapping around her whole body signaling that she was close.

With one last "Fuck!" Jack hitched her legs up higher around his waist as his movements sped up, making the bed shake. Stopping only long enough for him to keep the amplifier on the shelf attached to the headboard from falling on her head, Jack kept up the pace until her whole body stiffened. "That's right baby." He grunted as she bit his shoulder to stifle the scream that well up in her throat.

All too soon, he felt his body tighten and she wrapped her arms around him as he spasmed against her a couple of more times at the force of his release before collapsing on top of her When he tried to roll to the side but she clung to him tighter with her arms and legs. "No—not yet." She whispered against his throat. He kissed her softly before burying his face in her neck and breathing in her scent.

When he felt her breath even out and grow deeper, he cautiously withdrew from her body and rolled over to the side. Taking off the used condom, he tied it in a knot and threw it in the trash can in the corner, then reached one arm around Angie and spooned up against her back.

He knew that eventually they were going to have to have that talk he had put off, but for now, with all this shit surrounding his Ma's death, he was just happy and thankful that she was here. With a satisfied smile on his face, Jack slowly drifted off.

A/N: Okay, been having a few problems when I first uploaded some chapters, but hopefull they are all straightened out. I cranked out ten chapters of this story in a day! lol I couldn't tear myself away from it until I had gotten as much of it out of my head as I could. As I am still proofreading the rest as well as finishing the ending, I should be ready to upload in a day or two.

Please review and tell me what you think, or what you think I'm doing wrong. ;)


	7. Chapter 7

/Chapter 7

Angie woke up alone and frowned to herself. She had thought, or rather hoped that after last night, Jack would still be there when she woke up. She got out of his bed slowly due to the delicious ache between her legs that Jack had caused. As she went to check on Sebastian, she gave herself a stern talking too. The cold hard facts were that while right now, Jack needed her and the comfort of her body, it was not exactly a marriage proposal. She still loved him with every cell in her body, but she told herself that he might not feel the same. He had not mentioned anything about his feelings for her as of the moment or anything about a future together. For all she knew, he was planning to go back to New York or wherever he had been after everything was all over and her life was here.

She saw that Sebastian was still sleeping like an angel and smiled. She couldn't wait to tell Jack about his son. She quietly gathered her things and went back to the bathroom to hear the shower already running. Hearing voices downstairs, she peeked over the banister and saw Bobby and Angel on the couch and Sofie yelling in Spanish from the direction of the kitchen. That only left one person that could be in the shower.

Quietly opening the door a crack, she could barely make out the outline of someone very tall and thin through the thick white shower curtain. She tip-toed into the bathroom and shut the door with a barely audible click and started to strip.

Jack almost jumped out of his skin when she peeled back the shower curtain and joined him, maneuvering herself between him and the spray. "Oops, sorry. I thought you were done." She said innocently as she reached around him for the shampoo. He just grinned at her and helped by soaping up a clean washcloth and starting to wash her back.

Before they could do anything else, Bobby knocked on the door and said, "Yo, Ang! What does the little man eat for breakfast?"

She sighed and muttered about interruptions as Jack laughed and said, "Go ahead and finish your shower, I was already done. I'll make him some pancakes."

She kissed him on the nose in thanks and luxuriated in the hot water. Thank God Evelyn had had the foresight to put in a monster of a hot water tank or it would have been a cold shower she was taking this morning. She took her time showering and moisturizing her skin before getting dressed, looking forward to eating Jack's delicious pancakes for the first time in four years. But when she got downstairs, she found Greene talking to Bobby, who sat on the couch with one of Sofie's bathrobes on while Angel and Jack looked on from the doorway. Sofie stood in the doorway to the kitchen, shielding Sebastian from the conversation while he ate his breakfast.

"Hey Angie." Greene pulled her into a hug as he said, "I haven't seen you in a while. How you and your boy doing?"

"Just fine Greene." Angie answered with a tense smile.

Greene smiled at her while she noticed that his partner eyed her coldly, "You and Jack back together?"

Jack stepped up behind her, slid both arms around her waist and pulled her against his body as he said, "Yeah man, we're back together." She tried to keep her expression from radiating her happiness as Jack staked his claim on her, but she could tell from the twinkle in his eyes that Greene had an idea of her feelings.

Greene just nodded happily and said, "Good, good." Before turning to Bobby and saying seriously, "Look Bobby, if you got something and its vital, you give it to me and we will run with this. But don't try to take on Detroit by your damn self. You keep knockin' on the devil's door long enough, and sooner or later someone's gonna answer you."

Bobby just smirked without saying anything. Greene hustled his partner out the door. Angie checked on Sebastian before turning to the guys and saying, "What the hell did you do last night?"

They explained to her about finding the shooter responsible for shooting Evelyn and the car chase. She knew there was no need to ask what they had done when they had finally caught up with the two unlucky bastards. They also told her something that Jack had found out only that morning as he made breakfast. When Angel and Sofie went to her house the night before to pack more stuff for Sebastian, they walked in to find the house had been broken into. They would have normally thought nothing of it except that there was an old picture she had had of her and Jack together, taken during their last Christmas with his family. It had been pinned to the front door with a switchblade. By the time they were done telling her everything, she was very pale. She went to Jack and wrapped her arms around him as she composed herself.

After eating breakfast, Angie asked Bobby to drive Sebastian over to Jerry's after calling Jerry on her cell and asking if it was okay if he and Camille took Sebastian for a couple of days and about the break-in. Jerry immediately said okay while Camille yelled in the background that Angie should come too. She told Jerry to tell Camille that she wasn't leaving Jack. She didn't need to ask them to take good care of Sebastian, she knew that they would do that regardless, but it was still painful for her to sit Sebastian down and explain to him that he was going to stay with Uncle Jerry and Aunt Camille for a few days.

It was a shock when Sebastian burst out in tears. It took Angie ten minutes to calm him down enough to find out what was wrong. By that time, Jerry had arrived. Her heart almost broke when Sebastian told her that a girl in the neighborhood a couple of years older than him, who was always picking on the other neighborhood kids had told him that once his mommy found a boyfriend, she would pack him off to Australia because the new boyfriend wouldn't want him around.

Bobby muttered something about finding the little girl and cutting her pigtails off as Jack bent down and told Sebastian, "That is NEVER gonna happen little man. EVER. I am always going to want you around. I would never take your mommy from you." He crooned as he gestured to everyone surrounding them, "We are your family now, and you don't send your family away."

"Pwomise?" Sebastian asked hopefully.

"Promise." Jack said with a comforting smile. Sebastian seemed satisfied with Jack's acceptance of him and after giving him a tight hug, he took Jerry's hand and pulled him out the door and everyone heard him telling Jerry that Danielle and Amelia had better not try to make him play with their dolls again or he was going to cut off the dolls hair.

Jack wrapped his arms around Angie's waist as she watched her son leave. She leaned back against him and sighed, "Jack. I really need to tell you that—."

"Jack!" Bobby bellowed from the living room.

"I promise baby. As soon as all this shit with Ma is cleared up, we will have that talk." Jack whispered in her hair, "Even if we have to jump on Bobby in his sleep and tie him up with duct tape over his mouth." He turned her around his embrace to tell her more seriously, "I just don't think I can handle talking about it along with all the shit that's going on. Right now, I can only deal with one thing at a time. Alright?"

She felt unsure. He should know the truth, but he was right. The timing was bad. Once they found out who took out a hit on Evelyn and why, then she would make Jack talk to her so she could tell him that Sebastian was his son. She nodded and gave him a weak smile as they went back inside.

After getting a cup of coffee, she went back into the living room to see Angel standing in front of Sofie, who was blocking the door. Jack came over to her and kissed her as he whispered that they were going to go check out the shooter's place. She nodded and rolled her eyes as Bobby taunted first Sofie and then Angel after Sofie stormed off into the kitchen.

"She's getting real comfortable here man. What are you doing? I thought you was a macho man, a tough guy. You know it's a real shame that little Jackie's the only one down to ride." Bobby said as Angel clenched his jaw trying to brush off the insult to his manhood.

"Be careful baby." Angie said giving Jack one last kiss. She poked her head around the corner and called, "Bobby!"

"What?" he yelled back from the porch.

"You let anything happen to him and I swear to all that is Holy you better sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life, 'cause one day I will be there and I will cut your dick off and stuff it up your ass while you're sleeping!" Angie said warningly as Jack shook with laughter.

Bobby winced and checked to make sure his balls were still in his pants before saying sweetly, "Aww, Ang. Don't you trust me?" when she snorted without cracking a smile, he added, "Don't worry. I'll make sure the fairy comes home in one piece." He motioned at Jack. "Let's go. Say goodbye to your little sister Jackie." He smacked Angel lightly on the chest.

Angel gave Jack a dirty look as he passed him in the doorway, "You're gonna leave me too?"

As Jack went out the door, he taunted Angel in a sing-song voice, "She's addicted to what Angel's dick did."

Angel glared as he yelled, "And like Angie's not addicted to yours?"

"To fucking right I am!" Angie called over her shoulder as she went back up the stairs to take a nap in Jack's room. "And it better be back soon before I decide I need my fix! I'll get mighty cranky!"

The big, tough, mean Mercer boy's helpless giggles were cut off by the door closing.

By the time she woke up, the boy's were back and checking out the guns they found at the shooter's place. Jerry walked in the back door and asked what was going on. Bobby made some smart ass comment about getting started on next years taxes as Jack took her by the hand and pulled her into his lap as he flipped through the photos on a digital camera he found. As one picture faded into another, Angie gasped, "Look Jack, that's your mom!"

Angel and Bobby crowded around them as Jack continued to flip through the various photos of Evelyn walking out the front door and while she was shopping. "They were tracking her." Bobby said with murder in his eyes.

When a picture of her with an older man showed up, Angie felt Jack stiffen under her as he pointed at the picture and said, "That's that guy, the lawyer! That shithead said he only met her once Bobby!"

Angie thought that he didn't look like a lawyer now as the picture changed to show one where Evelyn was kissing the guy on her porch, but she didn't think they saw that one.

Bobby looked up at Angel as he walked in from outside and asked, "Where the hell you been? I been tryin' to call you all day." Angie hadn't realized that he was even gone, being as she had been busy catching up on the sleep she had missed last night.

"Following up on some new leads." He said without taking his eyes off of Jerry.

Bobby wasn't paying attention to the tension that seemed to surround Angel as he grabbed his jacket and said, "Let's go. Jerry, you comin' with us?" When Jerry looked as though he wanted to refuse, Bobby asked, "Don't you wanna find out who hired them?"

"Yeah," Angel said with his eyes glued to his brother, "Don't you wanna find out who killed mom?"

Jack stood up and kissed her goodbye as Jerry answered, "Of course I do man."

"Let's go. Stop bullshittin'. Come on." Bobby said halfway out the door with Jack trailing behind him.

Angie watched through the front window as they pulled away from the curb. Sofie was pissed from the sound of the pots and pans rattling around in the kitchen. When she started yelling at herself in Spanish, Angie sighed and went to calm her down.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. There was no reasoning with the Latino girl and the next thing she knew, Angie found herself in the passenger seat of Sofie's car as they tried to find the address that Sofie overheard Bobby telling Angel.

"If Jack gets mad at me again Sofie, I am holding you entirely responsible." Angie muttered at the sight of Bobby's car parked around the corner.

Sofie was still yelling in Spanish, which normally Angie understood, but Sofie was speaking it so fast that Angie could only catch a few words here and there. When Sofie stopped the car, jumped out and started yelling at the top of her voice about burglars while she honked the horn, Angie quickly got out and tried to plaster an "I don't know her and I don't know what this about' expression on her face.

The boy's piled out of the house and Jack stalked over to her while Bobby and Angel tried to quiet Sofie down as she stood there yelling at Angel at the top of her considerable lungs.

At the pissed look on Jack's face, Angie asked meekly, "Are you mad?"

He clenched his jaw and said in a seething voice, "Thirty."

"Huh?" Angie had no idea what he was talking about.

Jack eyed her beadily as he explained with deadly calm, "Seeing as you seem to have a problem with learning to keep you sweet little ass in the house when I tell you to, and this it's the third time you did it, I am going to spank that ass thirty times. Then, if you still can't learn to listen, it will move up to forty. Got it?"

Angie gulped with apprehension as her panties flooded with wetness. Deciding a show of remorse was a good option at the moment; she nodded like a good girl and tried to look repentant. Jack snorted his disbelief at her easy surrender and grabbing her by the hand, dragged her to where Bobby and Angel were talking to the lawyer. Depositing her next to Jerry, who was trying without much success of making Sofie shut up, he snarled, "Keep an eye on this one too Jer."

Angie had to hold back her laughs as Bobby pushed the lawyer into the snow and pulled his shirt over his head and proceeded to smack him with an open hand on the soft flesh of his stomach. She turned her attention to Sofie and Jerry. Between the two of them, they got Sofie back into her car.

As Angel came to drive her home, Jack grabbed her elbow and dragged her to Bobby's car where he pushed her into the backseat and climbed in beside her. Jerry and Bobby talked for a minute and then Jerry got into his own car to go back to his family and Bobby got in the front, muttering about nightclothes and too much information. Bobby and Jack filled her in on what the lawyer said on the way home.

As soon as they got to the house, Jack marched her right past the still arguing Sofie and Angel and up to his room. Closing and locking the door behind them. Jack looked at her with his expression unreadable. Angie gave him a sly look as she sashayed over to where he still stood up against the door and ran her fingers down his shirt to the waistband of his jeans as she kissed him hotly.

When he started to respond to her, she sank to her knees and nipped at his jean clad erection. She unbuttoned his pants as he watched her with glittering eyes and a tell tale flush along his cheekbones that told her that he was highly turned-on. He started to tremble as she licked at him and buried his hands in her hair. She took his length into her mouth and sucked. With a growl, he pulled her to her feet and she linked her arms around his neck with a small smirk as she ground her pelvis up against him. Jack gave a small groan, clutching her ass in his hands, he spun her around and her back hit the door with a thud. He pulled the shirt over her head as he said, "What was the point of sending anyone to get your clothes when you are always wearing mine, humm?"

Angie didn't respond right away as she obediently raised her arms so he could remove the shirt. After he tossed it to the floor, she said simply, "It smells like you." Before they started kissing again. As he removed her jeans and underwear, he looked up the length of her body and returned the favor, making her gasp, moan and start to pant before taking off his own jeans, grabbing a rubber out of his pocket before throwing them on the floor. Stepping up flush against her, he ran his hands over the length of her arms before pulling them above her head to grip the top of the inner door frame.

He hurriedly slipped on the condom before gasping her legs and hitching them up on his waist and entering her with one hard thrust. Slamming into her hard enough to make the door shake. He hissed at her tightness before pulling out slowly and then slamming back into her again. After a few minutes, he picked up the pace and fucked her mercilessly, pounding right through an orgasm before letting up. He stopped when she was a trembling mess in his arms and pulled out of her. She watched him through half closed eyes as he stood there smirking at her.

"Did you think I was kidding about the spanking Angie? Or did you think you could soften me up with a blow job and change my mind?" He said with a glint in his eye as he saw her body's response to his words. Taking her by the hand, he bent her over the end of his bed and moved behind her.

A long time afterwards, she didn't wake up when he put her exhausted body into bed, climbed in beside her, covering them with the blankets and pulling her close.

The next morning, Angie woke up in bed alone. She took a moment to stretch and smile to herself as she remembered last night. He had kept his word and spanked her with small stinging slaps as they had sex. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, that was not Jack's style. He had been abused too much as a kid in the foster system to get off on any kind of real pain like that, but he had definitely given her body, unused to any sexual activities, a workout. It was just hard enough to make her squirm and make her remember it when she sat down.

She got out of bed and winced as the soreness between her legs and on her ass where Jack had spanked her. She eventually got up and pulled on the shirt Jack had worn the night before and her jeans before leaving the room on the way to Bobby's old room to get a change of clothes for a shower, wondering to herself why she just didn't move her things into Jack's room. As she passed by the open bathroom door, she saw Angel talking to Bobby who was sitting on the toilet and Jack had his head poked out of the shower as she heard him tell Angel, "Rug burn. You'll live."

They all looked at her and the way she was walking gingerly due to the not-entirely-unpleasant ache between her legs and every one of them smirked, but none more than Jack. "Oh shut up!" she snapped as she kept walking, or rather hobbling.

"Jesus Jack, what did you do to the poor girl?" she heard Bobby guffaw while Angel busted out laughing.

She stopped in her path long enough to say loudly, "Jack Mercer, if you dare answer that question there will NOT be a REPEAT PERFORMANCE anytime in the near future!!" Satisfied she had cowed her man when her statement was met with only the sounds of Angel and Bobby's cackles, she continued on her way. She gathered what she needed for her shower. She lay back down on the bed in Bobby's old room to wait for at least Bobby and Angel to vacate the bathroom and the next thing she knew, Jack was shaking her gently awake. She blinked up at his towel clad form.

"I drew you a hot bath baby. That will get rid of the soreness better than a shower." He said with a smug look. He couldn't help it. He knew it was juvenile, but having her totter past the bathroom looking like it hurt made his chest swell with pride at the evidence of the long, hard fucking he gave her. But seeing her sleeping in Bobby's old bed made him feel a little sorry. He had never been that rough with her before when they were together, but after not having had her for the last four years; it was like their bodies were starving for each other and taking things slow and easy was impossible.

Knowing that if he waited for her to make it to the bathroom by herself, they would still be here next week, he picked her up and carried her into the bathroom. Standing her up long enough to remove her clothes, he swung her up again only to deposit her gently into the bathtub. He knelt down beside her and started washing her with the cloth he grabbed from the dresser that his mom had always kept in the bathroom to store the towels. She purred when he massaged her foot as he washed it.

He started to quietly tell her about the life insurance policy that Angel had found out about and how he and Bobby were going to go talk to a city councilman named Douglas. He confessed his fear to her that Jerry was somehow involved with their mom's murder. At that point, she cupped his face in her hands, giving him a soft kiss and said that even if it was about Jerry's business plans getting shut down, that that didn't mean that Jerry had any idea about it. She would never believe that Jerry would do anything that would lead to the cold blooded murder of Evelyn.

Jack was silent for a while as he continued to wash her. When he was done, he told her to stay there and soak for a while and he went to go get dressed. Angie relaxed back in the tub and thought about all that they had learned in the last few days. In her heart, she felt that the business with Jerry _was_ probably the reason Evelyn was killed, but she also knew without a doubt that if it was true, then Jerry didn't know anything about it. Jerry had loved Evelyn just as much as the rest of them did and there was no way he would knowingly so much as bend a hair on that woman's head out of place.

She frowned as she thought how Jerry had been paying all of Evelyn's bills when it became apparent that her pension was not going to cover everything. Jerry had once confided in her his dream of moving with Camille to California and purchase a small winery, but after Bobby, Angel and then Jack all left, he had buckled down and been the responsible one that he had always been. Staying in Detroit and working hard to take care not only of Camille and the girls, but his mom as well. She doubted that any of the others had even known about his dream of rolling hills covered with grape trees.

Jack came back to kiss her as he and Bobby prepared to leave to talk to this Douglas guy. She could tell that he was upset. But she had no idea what to say to him to make him feel better, so she just kissed him and told him the usual, "Be careful." And he replied with his habitual, "I will baby."

She hauled herself out of the bath and dried herself. Deciding that now was as good as time as any; she went and collected the four bags of clothes that Angel and Sofie had brought from her house. She wanted to go see it for herself, but knew that Jackie would not be happy about that and she wasn't really up for another spanking just yet. The bath had made her feel better, but not _that _much better.

Instead, she went downstairs and got a cup of coffee and returned upstairs after talking to Sofie for a while, she spent a few hours cleaning up Jackie room, or rather, _their_ room and put all of their clothes away in the dresser drawers and the closet. She placed the framed photos of Sebastian that had not been smashed around the room on the nightstand and the desk as well as the shelf above the bed. Changing the sheets, she picked up all the dirty clothes and took them to the small utility room where the back door was located next to the kitchen and started the laundry.

Walking into the living room where Sofie was watching television, they chatted for a while and agreed on what to make for dinner. Angie sat with Sofie as they watched Sofie's soap opera's all afternoon, Sofie busy explaining the various plotlines during the commercials, so that she wouldn't miss the day's developments. Angie had never liked soaps. She thought it a major waste of time actually. All the people involved did nothing but bed-hop from one person to the next. If she wanted to waste her time on that, all she had to do was walk around the block and talk to anyone that happened to be outside. There was never any shortage of drama in Detroit.

They decided to make beef stew for dinner and set out peeling and slicing all the veggies. They had a small argument about how much hot sauce to put in. Sofie liked it spicy, whereas everyone else liked to keep their stomach lining intact. Angie finally put her foot down and declared that if Sofie put so much as one more dash of hot sauce into the stew, Angie would pick the lock on Sofie and Angel's door and then lock Bobby in their room with them so that they could deal with the smell when it gave Bobby and Jack gas in the middle of the night.

Sofie grumbled that she would just add the hot sauce to her bowl. No one wanted a repeat of the time when they were sixteen and went on an overnight trip to an upstate concert by Metallica and Sofie had brought over extra spicy tamales. They had had to share a motel room with the guy's and Bobby's then girlfriend of the week. After Bobby ate the tamales, the rest of them had ended up camped out in the car for their own survival. And it was a small fucking car.

Angie unexpectedly smiled as the memory flowed through her mind. She had slept in Jackie's lap and when the manager of the motel woke them all up by banging on the window, she found his face buried by her then-huge boobs. For a minute or two she had thought she had accidently suffocated him, but when he finally woke up, he replied that he would have died happy if that had been the case, making everyone crack up laughing. Sometimes she thought that the reason Jack had ever asked her out in the first place was because her tits had hit puberty before the rest of her did. She had been embarrassed about her boobs being so big when she had not yet developed any other womanly curves until he told her that they made him happy and that should be enough. She had decided he was right and never gave it another thought. He had been just as happy with the flare of her hips and her ass when she had eventually gotten them.

Jack had a way of making her feel like the most beautiful and desirable woman on the planet to him. It was a part of the reason that she loved him so much. She wasn't stupid, she knew he had flaws. He was slow to trust anyone whose last name was not Mercer and he refused to talk about his past. He had only told her about some of the horrible things that had happened to him, the beatings and neglect he had endured, after they had been going out for almost two years and even then he had refused to bring up the subject since then. He could also be incredibly melancholy when he got into a funk. She had quickly learned that trying to coax him out of those moods was impossible and the only way to make sure that he didn't drown in his depression was to just sit with him.

She couldn't count how many times she had just sat in his room with him without saying a word for hours while he just strummed his guitar and she did homework or read a book. It was a good thing that she liked to read…a lot. He could also be wildly jealous. Which was probably why her pushing him away the way she did was the worst thing she could have done, but at the time, she knew it would be the best way to get him to leave.

She sighed as she spooned up bowls of stew for her and Sofie while Sofie grabbed a couple of the rolls for them out of the oven. They had just finished eating and Angie was washing their bowls in the sink while Sofie declared that she was going to make them some of what she called 'drinkypoos' which seemed to consist of mainly of hard liquor with a drop of cola on top.


	9. Chapter 9 part 1

Chapter 9

The two women were pretty toasted as the guy's walked in, and from the look of them, they were not happy little campers. But even Bobby had to grin when he asked what was to eat, Angie slurred slightly while loudly informing him there was stove on the beef stew and oven in the rolls and Sofie laid with her head on the table passed out and snoring like a trooper.

"That's your girl." He pointed out to Jack, who just shook his head as he grinned. When Jack scooped her up and carried her out of the room as she giggled and gave him a love bite right over his adams apple, Bobby called after him, "For cryin' out loud Jack, don't fuck her tonight! We don't have time to go get a wheelchair in the morning!" to which he was answered with a slurred "Fuck you Bobby, you're juss jealous cuz he's gonna get laid and all yur girls are in prison."

Angel and Bobby cracked up again.

"Can't hold your liquor." Jack grinned at her as he laid her down in their bed and pulled off her jeans.

Angie gave him her best drunken sultry look as she purred, "Would rather be holding this" as she cupped him through his jeans before promptly passing out and starting to snore softly.

Jack just smiled and shook his head again as he covered her with the blankets and went and got a glass of water and some aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. Placing it next to the bed, he went back downstairs to eat.

Way too early the next morning, Angie stumbled out of the bed holding her head with both hands and cautiously squinting as she made her way towards the only thing that could save her now. Coffee. She checked herself in the doorway as she saw that the guy's were already awake.

Jack patted his lap and rattled the bottle of Tylenol, which made her immediately wish to poke her eardrums out with the closest sharp object. Thankfully, he already had a cup of hot coffee waiting for her. She downed four of the small white pills and sipped the coffee. Yes, she had noticed the aspirin next to the bed, but she had also noticed that it was not a brand that worked for her. Jack must have remembered that fact when he had seen the big ass bottle of Tylenol she had bought at the supermarket and left on the kitchen counter.

After about fifteen minutes, she felt marginally human again and noticed the bright purple mark on his neck. She blushed furiously but he only smiled like the cat that ate the cream. She smiled back at him and then took in the somber expressions around her.

"What happened, what did you guys find out?" she asked with her heart in her throat.

Jack explained about their visit to the councilman and his telling them that Jerry was mixed up with Victor Sweet and how Angel had followed Jerry and seen him leaving the bank. And when they had met up with Angel at the bowling ally, they had all watched as Jerry handed an old buddy of his, that now worked for Sweet, a large envelope which they had taken from the guy after Jerry had left. They showed her the money and told her that Jerry was supposed to meet them there at the house in the morning and they were going to get to the bottom of this business.

"I can't believe it." Angie said shocked to the core.

Jack's arms tightened around her as he said brokenheartedly, "None of us can baby."

Angie wiped the tears from her eyes before any of them saw. They sat in silence as they waited for Jerry. Angie only broke the quiet once as she asked where Sofie was, to which Angel replied that she was still sleeping their little private party off. About an hour later, Sofie came down and joined them in the wait looking like she wanted to die right then and there.

The guy's finally went into the living room to watch some TV as they waited for Jerry while Angie and Sofie sat in the kitchen talking. Sofie had told her that the night before, Angel had woken her up and given her a ring, so they tried talking about the wedding, tense at the confrontation to come.

"I can't believe it." Sofie said softly as she shook her head, her black hair bouncing.

Angie patted her hand as she agreed. "Let's wait to pass judgment until we find out what Jerry has to say." She said.

Sofie gave her a wary look as she whispered, "You _know_ that if Jerry knew about this, Bobby will kill him where he stands. Then what? Bobby goes back to prison, Angel and Jack are without two brothers as well as Miss Evelyn and Camille will have to raise those little girls without their daddy." She started to cry.

"Well then," Angie said determinedly, "you and me will just have to make sure it doesn't come to that."

Both girls jumped when they heard a car pull up outside. Looking out the kitchen window, Angie saw it was Jerry. She didn't realize that Angel was right behind her until he called out, "Yo, he's here!"

She hurried into the living room and threw herself down on the couch where Jack was sitting alone. He grabbed her hand and squeezed. She squeezed his back to show her support for him whatever happened. He was impossibly tense and she hooked her other arm behind his head and started rubbing the nape of his neck gently, calming him a little. She didn't want him to know that she was getting a sinking feeling in her chest that something bad was going to happen.

Jerry walked into the living room and looked at Angie and Jack on the couch and Angel sitting in the chair in the corner. "What?" he asked.

"You know what you did." Angel said accusingly as he held up the envelope with the money.

"No!" Jerry started to back up in shock, "You don't know who you fuckin' with! Where's Bobby?" he asked as he turned around. He hadn't gotten even half way around before he was knocked right off his feet as Bobby's fist met his face.

Jack had her hand in a vice grip and Angie winced.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jerry shouted at Bobby as he held his nose.

Bobby leaned over him threateningly holding him down with one hand on his coat as he pointed a finger in Jerry's face and yelled, "What are you hiding Jerry? Huh? What are you hiding? I swear to God Jerry, if I find out you had anything to do with Ma getting' killed, I'm gonna kill you right here and now!"

Angie tensed in preparation of getting up to keep Bobby from making good on his threat, but Jack put his free hand on her arm to stop her.

"Angel is gonna ask you some questions, and brother, I shit you not, the time for lying is over!" Bobby said loudly.

Angel stepped forward and said, "We know you lying about your business, and we know you got mixed up with some gangsters." He stated rather than asked.

Bobby finally stepped back, but Jerry, probably wisely, remained on the floor as he asked, "Y'all think I had something to do with Mom getting' killed?" his voice rose in disbelief.

"You got a check for four hundred thousand dollars that you just so happened to forget to mention from Mom's life insurance!" Angel said aggressively.

"She took out that policy for the girls, man! I didn't have nothin' to do with that. Come on man!" Jerry said desperately.

"You made the payments!" Jack said from the couch.

Jerry started getting to his feet as Bobby said suspiciously, "Good timing Jerry! Just when it seems like all is lost for you, Mom gets shot by some gangsters and now you hit the fucking lottery!"

Jerry looked at his brothers disbelievingly as he said, "Y'all trippin' because I made insurance payments?! What?" He suddenly pushed Bobby down and took a swing at Angel, knocking him into the bookshelf behind him as he yelled, "I PAYED ALL HER BILLS!! Where the fuck were y'all?" he asked and knew that there would be no answer. "How many years did I have to take care of her my GODDAMN SELF? Y'all were around doin' nothin'! Bullshittin'! Ask Angie man, she helped out whenever she could too! And now you gonna tell me I killed her? Come on man!" he shook his head sadly.

"So why would you pay off a killer like Sweet?" Angel was not going to get sidetracked by his own guilt until he had all the answers, "What the fuck did he ever do for you Jerry?!" He took a step closer to Jerry.

Jerry lost it. "What he do for me? He killed my fuckin' LIFE!!" He screamed, "I put everything into that project! Then Vic's goons tried to come and take a piece!"

"You paid him Jerry!" Bobby accused, starting to calm down at the sight of his brother's indignation at their accusations.

"No, no, no, I _didn't _pay him! That's why they shut me down!" Jerry explained.

Jack spoke before anyone else could, "Wait, I thought the city cut you off Jerry?"

Jerry turned to his little brother and said, "Douglas? Come on man." He smacked his hands together for emphasis, "This is Detroit! Sweet owns Douglas! He ain't nothin' but a gangster in a suit! I don't pay them and he shuts my loans off!"

As the brothers continued to argue, someone knocked on the front door. Angie started to get up to answer it and Jack pushed her back down as he rose to his feet, "Do you really need me to spank your ass again Ang? You are supposed to be here to be protected, that means no answering the fucking door neither." He said as he went to answer it. Still having a bad feeling even though they now knew that Jerry's part in all this could be explained in a way that made sense, Angie followed Jack.

Rounding the corner just in time to see Jack take off out the door running after some guy, Angie felt her heart drop out of her chest. Clutching the doorframe, she screamed, "Jackie! No!"

At her scream, the guy Jack was chasing turned around and she caught a glimpse at the hockey mask he was wearing before all her attention centered on the gun in his gloved hand he had pointed at Jack as Jack stopped running and held his hands up. She screamed again as the guy shot Jack at point blank range. She felt rather than heard Bobby and Angel barrel out the door and Bobby shot the guy that was taking aim at Jack's head as he knelt in front of him with the shotgun in his hand. Jack got up, bleeding, holding his hand to a shoulder wound and tried to run, but a couple of plain vans pulled up and shooters all wearing masks piled out of them and opened fire with automatic weapons.

Angel cursed as he saw Angie standing frozen in the doorway and lunged at her, pushing her down to the ground. They crawled while crouched over as glass, brick and plaster rained down on them from the hail of bullets. She could hear Jack screaming for her and Bobby, his voice full of pain and fear and Bobby screaming for Jack, even over the roaring in her own ears. Angel yelled at Sofie, who was huddled against the far wall to give him the guns. As Sofie slid the two handguns across the floor, Angie bolted into the kitchen and out the back door, not paying attention to Angel's cursing at her and telling her to come back, the only thought in her head was to get to Jack.

She ran out the back door into the side yard and poked her head around the corner to see where the shooters were in relation to Jack, who lay with his arms clutching the lamp post and still screaming for her and Bobby. Seeing that no one was paying attention to either Jack or the back door of the house just yet, she crouched back down and ran to Jack.

Prying his arms from the post, she turned him over. He was bleeding from his shoulder and legs. Tearing off her sweater and the hoodie she had taken from him that morning, she ripped them both apart and pressed them against any wounds she could see. "Baby, I gotta get you out of here. Can you walk?" she asked frantically.

He didn't answer, but shook his head no, so she started to pull him away from the curb and behind a snow bank. She started to really panic when she saw a trail of blood come from between his tightly compressed lips.

"Baby, you gotta get out of here!" he gasped.

"I'm not leaving you Jack!" she shouted in his face and then covered his body with hers as she saw one of the shooter's heading for them. He completely ignored them as he went to the back door, shooting out the handle and kicking it in.

Jack gasped again as he said weakly, "You got Sebastian to think about baby. Get out of here!"

"So do you!" she said as tears poured down her face. She was so afraid that he was dying, she could barely breathe at the thought that she might lose him now. Please God! Not now! Not when they just found each other again! She prayed. "He's yours Jack! He's your son!" she cried desperately, hoping that it wasn't too late.

He smiled slightly as he grew weaker and closed his eyes. She didn't even know if he had heard her. "BOBBY!" she screamed at the top of her voice. Looking around, she saw Jerry bolt out of the house to his car. It barely registered in her mind to question where he was going. Bobby was beating the shit out of one of the men as Angel jumped out the upstairs window in what she knew had been Evelyn's room.

Shaking Jack slightly, she yelled, "Fight Jackie! You gotta fight! You have a little boy to think about! He needs his Daddy!" she was crying hysterically now as she said, "Please Jack! Don't leave us now. Please! I love you so much baby!"

She hardly noticed a massive crash of grinding metal as Jerry rammed the van that was heading for Bobby with his own car. The sudden silence was deafening, yet Angie didn't even look up as Bobby, Angel and Jerry all crowded around her where she clutched Jack in her arms while Sofie made a frantic call to 911, telling them they needed an ambulance.

"Don't you die on me Jack!" Bobby cried as he gripped Jack's head in his hands, making Jack open his eyes, "Don't you fuckin' die you fairy!"

A/N: Yes, I know I am really evil for the cliffie. I am currently hiding in my house with the curtains closed and the doors locked, praying none of y'all know where I live. Lol. Not to worry, there is a second part. I had to cut the chapter short because I was having trouble getting it uploaded. I will hopefully get it up tonight sometime, but with my three boys bouncing around the house and playing their favorite game which is called, 'Let's See Who Can Drive Mom Crazy the Quickest', It might be late when I finally get it up there.

Remember to review! It feeds the plot bunnies!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9 part 2

Jack started gasping for breath just as the ambulance and a couple of police cars rolled up. Angie refused to let Jack go as the EMT's worked as she cried frantically. Bobby pulled her away as they transferred Jack from the cold ground and onto a stretcher. One paramedic tried to stop her from getting into the ambulance with Jack, but Bobby shouted at him, getting into the guys face, "This is his fiancée and the mother of his son! She's going with you!" he turned to Angie and said soothingly, "We'll be right behind you."

Angie couldn't stop the tears from falling as she got into the vehicle and sat down so that she could whisper in Jack's ear as they kept working on him as the ambulance took off. She just kept telling him how much she loved him. She also told him about Sebastian. How much his son reminded her of him every day and how he loved Tom and Jerry cartoons and Sesame Street and Elmo. How he hated tomatoes, and loved music, just like his daddy, and how sorry she was that she didn't tell him sooner.

Jacks heart stopped once on the way to the hospital and Angie screamed that she wanted to die too, but he came right back when they shocked him. One of the three paramedics finally noticed that she was only wearing Jack's favorite black lacy bra and her jeans and flung his jacket over her shoulders asking her if she had been shot anywhere. She couldn't blame him for asking. She was covered in Jack's blood. She shook her head without even looking at the guy. She bent back down and whispered in Jack's ear that he had to come back to spank her ass because she let the medic see her in her bra.

They arrived at the emergency entrance with a jolt and a squeal of tires. They immediately rushed Jack inside and the doctors went to work getting him stable enough for surgery. A nurse calmly asked her some questions like who she was and if Jack was taking any medications for anything and if he had any medical issues or allergies that they should know about. She answered all the woman's questions without taking her eyes off of the love of her life as he fought for his.

They rushed Jack up to surgery, Angie by his side all the way. Another nurse in the surgical area brought the stricken young woman a cup of coffee and asked her if there was anyone she could call for her. She called Jerry's cell and told them that Jack was being operated on and Jerry assured her that they were on their way to the hospital. She gave them the floor number and sat down to wait, never taking her eyes off the door that they had taken Jack through.

Bobby, Angel, Jerry and Sofie all rushed into the waiting room and started asking questions. She told them what she knew and they all sat down to wait for the doctor. Sofie sat on one side of her, holding her hand in comfort and support and Bobby sat on the other, telling her that Jack was going to be okay and that he had too much to live for now that he knew he had her and Sebastian here waiting for him.

It broke her calm shell when he said that and she started sobbing uncontrollably, "What if it's not enough Bobby? What if I waited until it was too late to tell him?" she looked at him pleadingly with her eyes as she said in a choked whisper, "I don't even know if he heard me when I told him Sebastian was his, that he had a son."

Bobby drew her head down onto his shoulder and said, his own voice testifying to the tears he wanted to let go of, "He heard you Ang. You just have to have faith. That's what Ma used to say."

He held her until Camille and the girls arrived at the hospital with Sebastian. Angie took her baby into her arms and hugged him like she would never let go.

"Mommy?" Sebastian asked in his sweet little baby voice as he put a sticky hand on her cheek, "Why awe you cwying? Do you have a boo-boo?" He looked for signs of any band-aid's, "Do you want me to kiss it and make it bettaw?"

She smiled at him as Bobby told him with a gentleness that she would never have known Bobby had in him, "Yeah little man. Your mommy has a boo-boo, but it's in her heart because she is worried about your Uncle Cracker Jack. He got a boo-boo too and the doctor is trying to make it all better."

"Unca Jack has a boo-boo? What did he do?" Sebastian asked as he climbed into Bobby's lap, "Did he fall off his tricycle like I did when I had the boo-boo right here?" he held up an elbow to demonstrate. All the adults in the room smiled at him lovingly.

"Something like that little man." Bobby had no clue how to explain a shoot-out to a three year old.

Seeing Bobby starting to flounder in the depths of maturity, Angie asked her son softly, "Sweetie, do you like Jack?"

Sebastian nodded his head and said enthusiastically, "Um-hmm. He made me booberry pancakes and watched Tom and Jewwy with me." She shook her head as she wondered why he could say his r's correctly when he said his Uncle Jerry's name, but not when he said the name of one of his favorite cartoon characters, or anything else for that matter. "Bastian, do you remember asking me where your Daddy was?"

EVERYONE was paying attention now. Angie was sure that the nurses at the desk were even waiting with bated breath.

"Um-hmm." Sebastian nodded. He suddenly turned back to Bobby and asked out of the blue, "You're not my daddy awe you Unca Bobby?" he said with all the honesty of a child, "I like you, but you're kinda scawy."

"No little man, I'm not your daddy." Bobby guffawed, "And you never have to be scared of me. I would never do anything to hurt you baby."

"Oh, okay. Even though I pwayed with your cars and I bwoke one?" he tattled on himself.

"What cars little man?" he asked baffled.

"The ones in the room I was sweeping in at your house." Sebastian said simply.

Bobby cringed as he realized what cars Sebastian was talking about. The models of the classic cars that Bobby had spent countless hours painstakingly glueing together when he was younger. Taking a deep breath so as to resist the impulse to either yell or cry, Bobby finally answered, "Even though you played with my cars and broke one." Making a mental note to find out which one he broke as soon as Jack was okay and they got back to the house.

"Sweetie, Bobby isn't your daddy. Jack is." Angie told her son, ignoring Bobby's dramatics.

Sebastian stared at her for a minute before asking, "Weally? My honestly-twue-weal daddy?" with so much hope and excitement in his voice that it made tears well up in the eyes of all the women there, and the men, even though they tried to cover it with macho toughness.

Angie nodded as she looked at the small face so much like Jack's. Sebastian looked at the floor downcast for another minute before saying in a trace of hurt, "If daddy is my daddy, why didn't he want me?"

Angie's heart broke. Pulling Sebastian into a hug she choked out, "Aww, honey. That was mommy's fault. See, mommy was silly and forgot to tell daddy that she had you in her tummy. He didn't know he was your daddy."

"Did you tell daddy? Does he know now?" Sebastian asked looking more cheerful.

Angie nodded as she said, "Yes. I told him just today, right before he got the boo-boo that the doctor is fixing."

"Yay!" Sebastian cheered as he bounced up and down in Bobby's lap, making Bobby grunt and flinch as his nephew seemed to try to put an end to any chance that Bobby might become a daddy himself. He picked Sebastian up and deposited him in his mother's lap as he tried to discretely adjust himself into a more comfortable position.

Camille came over and asked Sebastian if he wanted to go with her and the girls to get a Coke and the little boy ran out of the room being chased by his giggling cousins. Camille gave Angie a warm smile as she trailed after the kids and Jerry took a seat next to Bobby and told him in amusement, "Yeah, you gotta watch that when having a kid in your lap. They always try to use your crotch for a trampoline."

Bobby winced in mock pain as he covered himself protectively, "Yeah, well thanks for telling me now that NO ONE is gonna be bouncing around down there for a while Jer!" It proved to lighten the mood considerably, but when the doctor came out of the operating room, everyone was tense and anxious again as they tried to read the news in the doctor's expression. He came over to them and didn't waste words for the people in front of him, "He made it through the surgery and we removed all the bullets. We removed a total of five. One from his shoulder, which collapsed a lung and caused him to bleed from his mouth and four from his legs. Most of those were in the backs of his thighs, and luckily, none hit any major arteries or veins." He smile tiredly as he added, "He will be fine."

They all breathed a collective sigh of relief and Angie stared crying again. She would have collapsed back into the chair behind her if it wasn't for Bobby holding her up with an arm around her waist. He pushed her face into his chest and rubbed her back as he asked, "Can we see him doc?"

The doctor shook his head as he told them, "Your brother lost a lot of blood and right now, he is unconscious. We have every reason to believe that once we get his blood levels back up, he will wake up. He is in what we call a low-grade coma. It's more like a really deep sleep than an actual coma, so there is no need to worry." He reassured them quickly at their horrified faces, "But combined with the painkillers and the anesthesia, it might take him a day or two to wake up. You can see him for a few minutes, but then I suggest that you all get some rest and come back in the morning."

"I'm not going anywhere." Angie stated stubbornly. The doctor looked like he was going to argue with her, but Jerry took him aside and had a whispered conversation with him for a few minutes, no doubt explaining that she was Jack's fiancée and they had been separated from each other until very recently. The doctor looked at her and gave her a nod before turning to tell one of the nurses to show them to Jack's room.

A/N: Ha-ha! Had you there for a minute didn't I? Not to worry, I love Jackie-Boy too much to ever kill him of at this point in time! By the way, I modled Sebastian after one of my own three year old twins. His language skills are advanced because he mimics everything anyone says (shudder) and never shuts up. The kid even talks in his sleep! lol Seriously though, I was just going to save Jack and then end the story, but it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Not enough for a sequel though, just a few more chapters.

As always, please review!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Jack looked so helpless lying there, hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor, his shoulder wrapped tightly in a bandage that looked as white as his skin. He had a smaller bandage on his head where he had hit it on the cold metal of the lamppost when he was shot in the legs while trying to run. They all stood in the doorway as if frozen in place. Angie hurriedly broke away from the others as she went to his side and ran her hand over his jaw, hearing the rasp of his stubble as it scraped across her palm.

She couldn't kiss his lips because of the breathing tube still in his throat, so she kissed his cheek as the tears of relief filled her eyes. She felt everyone else surround the bed. No one said anything for a long time until Camille came back with the kids. Sebastian squeezed his way past the grown-ups knees until he reached his mothers side. Pulling on the sleeve to get her attention, she looked down at him and he raised his arms in the universal 'pick me up' sign. Bobby scooped him up and gently put him down on the bed next to Jacks hips.

He pointed at the bandage on Jack's chest and asked in a whisper, "Is that his boo-boo?"

At his mothers and Uncle Bobby's nods, he stared at Jack for a moment, tracing the tattoos on his father's arms like Angie sometimes before leaning over carefully and planting a kiss first the bandage on Jack's chest and then the one on his head while whispering to Jack's sleeping form, "Thewe Daddy. I kissed your boo-boo's so you can get bettew now." And then he turned to Bobby and said, "Why doesn't he wake up Unca Bobby? I kissed his boo-boo's so they won't huwt anymore."

Bobby got too choked up to respond to the little boy, so Jerry came over and pulled Sebastian into his arms. "I'm sure that made your daddy feel so much better little man. He's just really tired and needs to sleep right now." Jerry looked at Angie and said, "I'm going to take Camille and the girl's home right now. We will take Sebastian with us. We'll keep him as long as needed. You just concentrate on Jack right now Pipsqueak."

Camille nodded her agreement as she hugged Angie, "I'll bring you some clothes to change into when we come back in the morning. You just worry about taking care of your man right now." She pulled back and cupped Angie's face as she whispered, "It's gonna be okay. He's okay."

Angie sniffled and said, "Thank you guys. For everything. I don't care what anyone thinks, this is the best damn family in the whole fucking world." She kissed Sebastian and promised to call him everyday until his daddy woke up.

The family left while Angel walked out with them to talk to the nurse. When he came back in, an orderly was with him wheeling a cot into the room. "I got the nurses to send for this. I figured we won't be able to pry you outta here until Jack woke up."

Angie hugged Angel tightly, "Thanks Angel. You're right. Nothing and no one is gonna make me leave." She turned to see Sofie visibly drooping against the wall. "You should take Sofie home before she collapses from exhaustion."

"Yeah, we're gonna head back to the house y'all." He grinned at his normally energetic girlfriend.

After they had left, leaving only her and Bobby standing side by side next to Jack, Angie said quietly, "What are you gonna do Bobby?" she turned to him suddenly fierce, "Those fuckers tried to kill Jack."

"They ain't walkin' away from this Ang. I promise you." Bobby said in a deadly voice. "Whatever happens though, you just worry about Jack. Jerry and Camille will take good care of the little man. I'm gonna talk to Jerry about sending them to Camille's mom's house in Bad Ax until whatever we decide to do is finished."

Angie nodded as she turned back to Jack and smoothed his hair away from his closed eyes. "That sounds like a good idea."

No more was said for a while until Bobby went to leave. When Angie called to him quietly, he stopped in the doorway and looked at her. "Make sure he suffers before you kill him." She said coldly.

She had always been one to let others worry about justice. To her, the right thing to do would be to let the cops handle their business, and leave it at that. But then, that bastard had killed Evelyn, a woman that had never done anything but good for all that came into contact with her. So she had kept her mouth shut, as far as she was concerned, whatever happened, happened. But then they made the mistake of trying to take Jack away from her son. Away from her. Now she wanted vengeance. Fuck justice. She wanted Victor Sweet to die in the most humiliating, painful, nasty way she could think of and a few she couldn't even imagine.

And she knew that Bobby would make sure he didn't live to see tomorrow, which was fine with her.

"You know I will." Bobby vowed.

Once she was alone, Angie only left Jack's side long enough to pull a chair closer to the bed. Holding his hand in hers and running her fingers over the calluses on his fingertips from playing guitar, she bent until her mouth was next to his ear and whispered, "I love you Jack Mercer. I have loved you as a girl and as a woman. I have loved you for your kindness, your compassion, your fierceness, your protectiveness and even for your possessiveness. I love your smile, your laugh, your smell, your heart, your mind, your body, your spirit and your soul. I have never and will never love _anyone_ as much as I love you." She stopped and drew in a ragged breath before continuing, "Come back to me baby. Come back to the woman that loves you and the son that needs you. I am _so, so_ sorry for not telling you about Sebastian sooner and I will do anything to make it up to you for the rest of my life. I am so sorry for making you think that there is _any_ other man that I want to touch me. There never has been and never will be anyone else in my heart or my body. Please baby—please hear me and wake up."

She laid her head down on the bed next to him and hummed the songs he used to sing to her while they were sitting in his room when they were kids. The nurses came and went and asked her if she needed anything. At about one in the morning, the night nurse, an old woman that informed her that she had been well acquainted with Evelyn, pressed a pair of surgical scrubs and a couple of towels into her hands and ordered her to go clean herself up and go change. When it looked as though Angie would refuse, she told her flatly that the last thing Jack should see when, not if, he woke up was the woman he loved covered with his blood. That thought finally made Angie take more than two steps away from the bed since Jack had come out of surgery.

She closed herself up in the small bathroom in Jack's hospital room and looked at her reflection in the mirror. No wonder the nurse got on her case. Her face was covered in dirt and blood except where her tears made tracks through it. The mess extended all down her chest to the waist of her jeans. She made a quick call to Angel before wetting one of the towels and starting to scrub herself clean.

Trying to wash her long hair in the sink was a bit difficult, but by the time she was finished, walking out of the bathroom feeling a little refreshed if not totally clean, Angel had already dropped of the things she asked him for. She dug through the bag where she found some clean underwear and bra along with Jack's old pair of flannel pajama bottoms and another one of his hoodies. She smiled as she remembered once when she had dragged Jack with her to the mall to shop for some clothes and he complained the entire time, asking her why she needed clothes when she always wore his. It had gotten to the point that Evelyn would let her into Jack's room even when he wasn't there so she could dress in one of his shirts, and when she went shopping for clothes for Jack, she would take Angie with her to pick out the ones she liked the most.

She started brushing her hair as she returned to Jack's bedside and smiled in thanks at the nurse who introduced herself as Betty Dimsdale. They talked for a while and Angie was surprised that Betty knew who she was and about her relationship with Jack, and Betty explained that she and Evelyn had been friends and whenever they had gotten together, Evelyn would always fill her in on what her boys were doing. She also told Angie how happy Evelyn was when her and Jack had started going out and how much Evelyn said they loved each other. After about an hour, Betty helped Angie unfold the portable cot and set it up next to the bed.

Betty brought her a pillow and some blankets before she went to check on the other patients in the ward. Angie lay down without letting go of Jack's hand, not really expecting to sleep as memories filled her mind. The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her awake. She opened her eyes, seeing Jerry and Sofie and asked, "What time is it?"

"Almost two pm." Jerry replied. He quickly filled her in on the plan that he, Bobby and Angel had come up with and that he was only here to drop off another set of clothes and something for her to eat. He said that he had taken Bobby's advice and sent Camille and all the kids to Camille's mom up north that morning.

Angie was scared as she thought of all the things that had to come together perfectly in order for them to pull this off, but Jerry assured her that it would work. He told her that Sofie was going to stay there with her until it was time for her to go to the police station to get them all out to Fowler's residence. Angie wished him and the boy's good luck and told him that she would call as soon as there was any change in Jack's condition. She also asked him to call her on her cell when everything was done.

She and Sofie spent a little over an hour together before it was time for Sofie to leave. She told Angie not to worry about anything. "You know the Mercer boy's. If anyone can do this, it would be them." She said with conviction.

After Sofie left, Angie laid her head gingerly on Jack's chest on the side not covered with a bandage and listened to his heartbeat. The soothing sound of the strong, steady thumping in her ear soon lulled her into a comfortable sleep.

She woke abruptly when a young nurse came into the room with a bowl and a bunch of towels. Angie narrowed her eyes at the pretty young woman with probably the biggest tits she had ever seen, which were barely covered, and flatly refused to leave the room when asked. When the nurse explained that she needed to give Jack a sponge bath, Angie snarled at her, scaring her so badly that she rushed out of the room without another word.

Betty, who was still on duty thankfully, bustled into the room with the younger nurse in tow, to find out what was the matter, "If Jack needs to be washed, I'm gonna be the only one who does it!" Angie seethed jealously.

"You tell them girl!" Bobby edged her on as he walked through the door with Angel. They both exclaimed at seeing Betty and gave her a big hug before Bobby said to the girl, "That's our little brother's girl and you gotta watch out…she is CRAZY jealous!" as Angie muttered, "To damn fucking right!" as she stood there with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Perhaps it would be better if she gave Mr. Mercer his baths." Betty said diplomatically as she gave Angie a wink out of the corner of her eye, "I am sure that if she needs any assistance, his brothers would be more than happy to help."

The girl gave Jack what looked like to Angie a wistful look, causing Angie to audibly growl. The nurse snapped her eyes to away from the form in the bed and paled as Angie took a threatening step forward. Bobby and Angel laughed loudly as the girl hurried from the room as fast as she could. Something told them that that would be the last they ever saw of her.

Angie scoffed and marched over to the table where Miss Slutty Porn Nurse left the bowl. Snatching it up with an attitude, she stalked into the bathroom to fill it with warm water. Grabbing the soap and the towels, she ignored Bobby and Angel's amused grins as she set everything down and started to give Jack a sponge bath. They both came forward to help her wash his hair and Angel combed it for him as Angie started on the rest of his body.

As they worked, finishing quickly, they told her quietly about Greene getting shot and killed. She was sorry to hear it. Greene had been a good guy…even for a cop. They also let her know Fowler and Victor Sweet's fate. She, who was putting the bathing paraphernalia away, stopped what she was doing to give them both a big hug as she gave a relieved "Thank God!"

Being so relieved that their mom's murder was solved and avenged and that their little brother was not only going to be fine, but was the father of a beautiful little boy that they all already loved. Bobby and Angel finally let themselves let go of the tightly coiled rage that had been inside of them since they got back to Detroit. The three of them shared a three-way hug. It was finally over. It was finally done.

Pulling away from the other two, Angie dried her eyes, "I swear, I've cried more in the last few days than I have in ten years!" she joked, "If I keep this up, I'm gonna dehydrate myself!"

The three of them, occasionally joined by Jerry and Sofie, kept vigil beside Jack for the rest of the day. Jerry had only left when Camille had called him to tell him that she was on her way back. Jerry had called her earlier to tell her to come home, but she had decided to visit with her mom for a while before doing that.

They spent the time teasing one another mercilessly as well as reminiscing about all the times they had hung out together as a group. Two days after the shoot-out, Jack finally woke up.

"Bobby?"

The three of them snapped their heads around in shock and joy as they heard the weak voice from the man in the bed. Jack blinked owlishly at them before the all rushed to his side. "What happened?" he asked Bobby and Angel. Angie grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, but he didn't squeeze back. Instead, he moved his hand away to touch the bandages on his chest and head.

Bobby filled him in on everything that had happened after the shoot-out while Angel poured Jack a cup of water from the jug on the bedside tray-table. Bobby helped prop Jack up so he could drink. After lying back down with a groan, Bobby went and told the doctors that Jack was awake. The three of them waited in the hallway while Jack was checked over. At the nurse's signal, they reentered the room to find out what the doctor had to say.

"Well," the doctor declared happily, "He is doing very well and we should be able to release him the day after tomorrow provided that he has someone to take care of him at home. He will need a few physical therapy lessons and he'll have to keep that right leg in a cast and use crutches and taking painkillers for a while, but everything looks good." He smiled happily and left.

After exchanging a few jokes, Jack's eyes finally met hers and turned serious. He said, "Guys, I need to talk to Angie alone. Why don't you go home and get some sleep?"

The two older brothers gave him a hug before heading out the door. Once they were alone, Angie stood there uncertainly. She edged over to the chair she practically slept in since getting to the hospital and looked at her clenched hands in her lap. She still didn't know if he had heard her while lying there wounded and bleeding, so she decided to go with that, "Um, did you hear what I told you? Right before the ambulance came?"

He merely sat there with his arms crossed, staring at her with an unreadable expression as her fidgeting got worse the longer he remained silent. After a minute, he asked quite calmly, "Where is my son?"

Angie bit her lip as she replied timidly, "They thought it would be a good idea to send Camille and all the kids to her mom's house in Bad Ax. Bobby told me that Camille is on her way home now."

"Now tell me everything about our break-up, and I mean _everything_ Angie." He said in that same tone.

Angie told him everything she did and why she did it. She thought he almost smiled when she told him Derek was gay, but it was gone so fast that she could have imagined it. When she was done, he said nothing, just staring at her.

"Jack, please. Say something…anything." She finally said.

He uncrossed his arms and said tiredly, "Go home Ang. I'm tired, and I need to think."

She only nodded while not looking at him, not wanting him to see the tears in her eyes at his dismissal. Grabbing her purse and coat that the guy's had brought for her, she left the room. She used the payphone in the lobby to call the house. Sofie answered the phone and told her that she would send Angel right away. Sitting down to wait, Angie nervously chew her thumbnail and shook her leg. She was a wreck by the time Angel pulled up in Sofie's car.

Angel tried to ask her what happened and she said that she told Jack everything about what happened before he left for New York. Angel tried assuring her that Jack loved her and not to worry but she ignored his little pep talk as she stared out the window. When they got home, she went upstairs without a word to anyone and crawled into Jack's bed where she cried herself to a short sleep.

The next morning, Sofie slammed down the phone, cursing in Spanish again and calling for Angel or Bobby. They came in from outside where they had been looking at the damage to the house, deciding what would need to be done and in what order. When Angel asked Sofie what was wrong, Sofie started telling him in Spanish in her agitation.

"Whoa honey. English." Angel told her.

Taking a deep breath, Sofie explained, "I went to check on Angela this morning." They knew that she must be upset as she hardly ever called Angie by her full name, "She is a mess. She must have cried all night. When I saw her, she was almost hysterical, saying that Jack hated her and he would never forgive her, so I gave her one of my sleeping pills to make her calm down."

"Shit!" Bobby explained as he wiped a hand down his face, "What the fuck did the fairy say to her last night?"

Angel shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know man. She didn't talk that much when I went and picked her up, but she was chewing on her nails, and she did say that she told him everything, including about what happened with Dickhead Derek."

"So why would she get all worked up then?" Bobby asked himself out loud.

"It gets worse." Sofie told them, "Jack just called. He wants me to bring Sebastian to see him…_without_ Angie. He also said to tell her to take her things out of his room today before he gets released from the hospital."

"_FUCK_!" Bobby and Angel exclaimed at the same time.

"Come on Angel, lets go find out what the hell the fucking fairy is thinkin'." Bobby said as he grabbed Angie's car keys. They had still not gotten his car fixed.

"Sofie, you go get the little man like Jackie asked you too and meet us at the hospital." Angel told his fiancée as he hurried after Bobby to stop Jack from fucking everything up.

Angel and Bobby rode in silence all the way to the hospital and up to Jack's room. As soon as they got out of the elevator, people loitering around, took one look at the two men, one black, one white but both with matching intense expressions, hurried to get out of their way as they headed straight for Jack's room only to find him flirting with the fucking nurse that tried to give him a bath and got ran off by Angie for her troubles. She was leaning suggestively over his bed and the zipper of her uniform shirt was low enough to barely cover her nipples. Jack, the fucker, was apparently enjoying the view greatly judging by the smile on his face. A smile that both Angel and Bobby were itching to slap off.

"GODDAMN IT JACK! YOU FUCKING FAIRY! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!!!" Bobby screamed so loud that four beefy security guards came to stop someone from getting killed on their territory.

They piled through the door comically and then looked at the scene before them. Bobby and Angel stood right inside the door while a nurse bent over a patient in the bed with her considerable rack almost touching his face. Jack just smirked, making both of the other men even madder.

Angel turned his head towards the guards and snarled, "Get the fuck outta here!"

Before the guards could do more than puff up, the doctor sailed through the door and boomed in an authoritive voice, "What, may I ask, is going on?"

Bobby hissed with disgust as he said, "Your…health care professional," his voice dripped with sarcasm, "over there is trying to suffocate my brother with the tits that she can't seem to keep in her fucking shirt!"

The doctor looked at the nurse, who was blushing furiously, and said sharply, "Nurse…" he examined her nametag, "Connor, what are you doing in here?"

She paled as she looked towards Jack with a pleading look. Shooting a glance at his two furious brothers, Jack said, "It's all right. We were just talking."

If his words were meant to get Big Tits out of trouble, he should have remained silent. The doctor drew himself up and said sternly, "Nurse Connor, I suggest you spend less time '_chatting_' with the male patients and more time doing your duties! Now go!" he pointed a finger at the door. Before following her out to give her a good ass chewing in the corridor.

As soon as they left, Bobby and Angel swung around and Angel continued taking a chunk out of Jack's skinny white ass, "Yo! What the fuck did you say to Angie last night and why you lettin' that big tittied skank hang all over you Jack?! Are you really willing to throw away everything you have with Angie over some bitch that'll fuck anybody?"

"You don't know anything about it Angel, so back the fuck off!" Jack said sullenly.

Bobby and Angel shared a look and Bobby asked, "What's going on Jack? What did you say to Angie?"

Jack rolled his head towards the ceiling and ground out, "I didn't say anything alright? I let her explain and then I told her to go home…that's it."

"That's it huh?" Bobby mocked, "That's why she is such a fucking mess that Sofie had to give her a fucking sleeping pill just to calm her the fuck down?" It should have been an indication to Jack how pissed off Bobby was with his little brother that he called Sofie by her name and not La Vida Loca.

"And that's why you told Sofie to bring you Sebastian without bringing Angie?" Angel added sarcastically.

"And that's why you told Sofie to move Angie's stuff outta your room?" Bobby added.

Jack crossed his arms and said stubbornly, "Its none of your business guy's, so stay the hell out of it."

Angel actually growled and Bobby raked a hand threw his hair before laughing coldly, "You think it's not our business huh?" Leaning over Jack and sticking his face right up to him, Bobby said clearly, emphasizing every word. "Angie is fucking family! Everything to do with her is our business!" Standing back, he pointed a finger in Jack's face as he said, "You better think hard before you fuck it up and lose the best goddamn thing to ever happen to you my brother!"

"SHE FUCKING LIED TO ME BOBBY!!" Jack screamed at him in fury, "She robbed me of the chance to be with my own kid. To RAISE my own kid! TO KNOW THE FIRST FUCKING THING ABOUT MY OWN GODDAMN SON!!"

"She also gave you a chance to make your dream come true Jack!" Bobby shouted in his face, "She didn't want to take that away from you so that you would spend the rest of your life thinking what could have been. I would have thought you would be over the fucking moon to know that she never cheated on you!" Jack didn't answer, crossing his arms and looking away.

Disgusted, Bobby started to walk out of the room before stopping in the doorway and saying before slamming the door closed behind him, "By the way, I catch you even _thinking _about stickin' your dick anywhere that you shouldn't…I will cut it off myself little brother."

"He'll do it too." Angel warned him with a glare, "And I'll help by holding your stupid ass down!" he started walking for the door and throwing over his shoulder, "I'm gonna go see when we can take you home."

Angel found Bobby pacing the hallway looking like he wanted to kill somebody, or at least beat the shit out of them.

Everyone was eyeing the man nervously. Obviously, the Mercer family reputation had once again, preceeded them.

"Can you believe this shit?!" Bobby spat. Stopping his pacing long enough to hold his thumb and finger almost touching, "This fucking close! A cunt hair close to having everything that he has ever really wanted, that has ever really mattered o him, and then he goes TRYING to fuck it all up!" he threw his arms up in the air.

Angel, having better success at keeping his temper than Bobby for the moment, sighed and said, "I don't know Bobby. I'm gonna go see when we can take him home."

Bobby nodded absently as he resumed his pacing. Just when things should be going better, Jackie has to throw a fucking wrench in the mix. Stupid fucker.

Just as Bobby saw Angel making his way towards him, the elevator door opened and Bobby heard Sebastian squeal, "Unca Bobby! I'm gonna see my Daddy!"

Bobby couldn't help but to smile as he crouched down and ruffled Sebastians soft hair, "That's good little man." Looking at Sofie, he asked her with no trace of his usual tauting, mocking tone whenever he talkd to her, "How's Ang?"

Sofie frowned and shook her head sadly as she said low enough for Sebastian to not hear her, "I didn't want to leave her alone, but she insisted I take Sebastian to see Jackie."

"So you told her what Jackie said?" he asked.

She noddd and muttered something about not having a choice. She took Sebastian by the hand and entered Jack's room. Bobby decided to go check on Angie himself and left the hospital after informing Angel, who was still waiting to talk to the doctor.

When he got home, it was to find a crying Angie sitting on the floor in the middle of his old bedroom surrounded by her clothes and things. Without a word. He took her into his arms and started to rock her, making shushing noises. She finally calmed down long enough to tell him about holding Sofie down with a pair of scissors in her hand, threatening to shave her bald if the spanish girl didn't tell her what Jack said on the phone.

Bobby chuckled a little at the image as he smoothed Angie's hair away from her face. The girl was a mess. Black circles under her puffy, red-rimmed eyes and the area around her nose was bright red from being constantly rubbed with a tissue she had clutched in her hand.

"What am I gonna do Bobby?" she sniffled against his chest.

Bobby just sighed and continued to rock her, "I don't know Pipsqueak. Just give him his space for a while."

They sat there for the rest of the afternoon, each in their own thoughts until Angel called to say that Jack would be released the next morning. Bobby finally cajoled Angie to go take a shower while he went to find out what to do about dinner. He stood in the kitchen for a while, staring at the contents of the refridgerator as if something would jump out and start to make itself before deciding to order a pizza.

When it was delivered, they sat together on the couch watching a game while he bullied Angie into eating some by reminding her that no matter what happened with Jack, she still had Sebastian to think about. He kept one eye on her and one on the game, satisfied when she started to eat one of the pieces he gave her.

Angel and Sofie came in with a sleeping Sebastian in Angel's arms. They whispered that they were going to put him in bed and Angie hurried up the stairs after them, saying that she was going to tuck him in. When she didn't come back down after a while, the guy's sent Sofie up there to check on her and Sofie reported that Angie was sound asleep next to her son.

As Bobby lay in bed that night with his arms behind his head as he stared at the ceiling, he really hoped that Angie and Jack would work things out for the sake of their little boy.

A/N: Big brother Bobby! He reminds me of someone I know, (no details 'cause you know who you are Sweetie!) All rough and tough on the outside, but an absolute marshmallow for the one he loves. Next Chapter up soon!

Sorry. I haven't updated in a couple of days! My internet provider went all screwy so I lost the net for a while. Just to make it up to you, I will try to post two chapters today!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11

Angie woke up the next day as Sebastian bounced on the bed and excitedly told her about his visit with Daddy. Listening intently, she checked her watch as groaned. She had not been sleeping very well for the last week with everything going on and it was starting to take a toll.

Sebastian kept chattering away as she went and brushed her teeth. She listened intently as the subject moved from his trip with Aunt Camille to his visit with his father. He was just so excited about having his daddy finally with him that it caused a fresh wave of grief and pain flow through Angie as she clenched her toothbrush in her hand.

Jack had every right to hate her, she reminded herself as she made her way to the kitchen and poured Sebastian a bowl of cereal. She was nervous about what he would say or do when he got home. Thinking about his release, she looked outside to see Sofie's car was not parked anywhere near the house. They must have already gone to get Jack.

After eating his cereal, Angie settled Sebastian in the living room with a Tom and Jerry video while she straightened up the kitchen. She then sat on the couch and fidgeted until she heard the car pull up outside. She crossed her arms and legs to keep them from visibly shaking as the back door opened and everyone came in the house,

"Daddy!" Sebastian cried as he jumped up and went to hug Jack, who was hobbling through the door with the aid of crutches and a grim looking Bobby.

"Hey little man!" Jack smiled warmly at his son who was hugging his leg. It was a good thing his leg was in a cast, or the force of the squeeze would have hurt like a bitch. When his eyes met Angie's, they grew cold and distant.

He hated that she still looked like she would bust into tears any minute, but he couldn't bring himself to forgive her. He had admitted to himself in the hospital that he still loved her. He didn't think anything would ever change that, but he couldn't get over the fact that she had robbed him of the chance to be there. To feel Sebastian move in her belly, to see him born. He even felt cheated out of two am feedings and changing diapers. He had a son that he knew next to nothing about, all because she had decided to make decisions about what would be best for him without talking to him about it first.

Without speaking to her, he turned to Sebastian and said, "Come on Sebastian. Take this upstairs and put it on my bed." He handed the boy a small bag of stuff that everyone had brought him at the hospital the day before, like his brush and some clothes.

Sebastian rocketed upstairs with the bag as Jack made his way to his room after him. He stayed in his room for most of the afternoon with Sebastian, who informed the rest of the house that his Daddy was teaching him to play the guitar. Angie was downcast all day and hardly said a word as she and Sofie shaped burgers to go with the hot dogs that Bobby was going to grill out on the porch. Sofie gave up trying to get Angie to talk as they sliced lettuce and tomatoes as well as putting together the potato salad Sofie had started making earlier.

After they were done, Sofie called for everyone to come eat and they all sat down at the table. Angel helped Jack to the table as Angie fixed Sebastian a plate. Bobby led them to say grace and soon, the sound of forks on plates and muttered; "Please pass the mustard." filled the room.

Angie kept her eyes on her plate as Sebastian, oblivious to the tension in the room, chattered away to everyone with the occasional question being answered by someone. Throughout the meal, Jack and Angie studiously avoided the other's eyes even though they sat across from each other.

When everyone was finished, Angie went into the kitchen to do the dishes while Sofie collected the dirty plates and left over food. Bobby and Angel helped Jack into the living room and onto the couch to watch TV. When finished with the kitchen, Angie and Sofie went to join the boy's. Angie sat quietly in the chair across the room furthest from the television while Sofie parked herself in Angel's lap.

Soon Sebastian, who had been sitting next to his daddy, announced that he was tired. Angie made a move as if to take him, but Jack said snottily, "Bobby, I'm gonna go get my son ready for bed." As he levered himself up with the crutches.

Angie followed the two with her eyes as they left the room while her face burned with embarrassment. Clenching her jaw together, she announced that she was going to go get some stuff from her house and walked out of the room into the kitchen where she grabbed her coat off the back of the chair and her keys from the table. She heard Bobby call her name as she rushed out the door and into the cold winter night.

Practically running around the corner to her house, she let herself in the backdoor and turned on the light. It was a mess. She stared open mouthed at the destruction around her. The layout of her house was the same as that of the Mercer place with the exception of the enclosed front porch. The washing machine and the dryer were overturned and clothes and laundry soap littered the floor in the back room while all of the cupboards in the kitchen were wide open and their contents scattered all over the room and into the dining room. The table and chairs were splintered as if the intruders had smashed them against the walls.

The mess did not lessen as she moved through the house. All of the pictures and knickknacks she had decorated the house with had been smashed and the sheets and towels in the linen cupboard had been viciously ripped apart. The furniture in the living room had been slashed and stuffing littered the floor along with the glass and the broken TV and VCR.

Moving onto the upstairs, the rooms had been ransacked and the mattresses lay discarded among the debris of torn clothing and other personal items. Her room in particular looked as if someone had searched it before destroying everything. Thank God she did not keep her important papers in the house. Glad for once that she kept everything in a safety deposit box at the bank, she looked bleakly at the mess and went back downstairs.

She gave a jump and a startled yelp as she thudded into a solid someone as she got to the bottom of the stairs and made the turn into the living room.

"Hey, it's only me!" Bobby said as he grabbed her arms to keep her from falling on her butt.

She gasped and steadied herself as she said, "Shit Bobby, are you trying to kill me?!"

Bobby winced as he said, "Sorry." Looking around, he whistled and asked, "They really did a number here didn't they?"

"Yeah. Its gonna take forever to fix everything." She said sadly.

He flung an arm around her shoulders as he said comfortingly, "Don't worry about it Pipsqueak. You know that Angel and I'll get the furniture and stuff fixed up in no time, and Sofie will help you clean the place up. Until then, you know that you and Sebastian are always welcome to stay with us for as long as you want."

Angie sighed as she said, "What about Jack?"

Bobby's face grew serious as he said, "He would want that too, even if he won't admit to it. Just hang in there kiddo."

They locked the house up as best they could and walked back home. Angie told Bobby that she was going to bed as she made her way up the stairs with heavy footsteps. She saw that Jack's bedroom door was open and she heard the soft sounds of his guitar. She paused by his room as she passed, but he didn't acknowledge her presence in the open doorway. She let herself into her room and climbed carefully into the bed so as not to wake Sebastian, and laid there, completely miserable for most of the night.

Over the next few day's, she spent most of her time at her house setting everything to rights while only going back to the Mercer's to sleep, shower and change her clothes. Sebastian spent most of his time with Jack, learning guitar and watching cartoons. She and Jack only spoke once and that was when Angie had said something about hiring a babysitter for Sebastian while she worked on her house and at the bar. Jack had informed her coldly that his son was fine staying with him, while making a perfectly snide comment about how he had been cheated out of spending time with the boy already.

After Angie had left to go to her house, Sofie took one look at Bobby's face and hustled Sebastian out the door to go buy him some candy at the market so that he wouldn't hear the screaming match that Bobby and Jack got into. It only ended when Bobby shouted that if it wasn't for the fact that Jack was still recovering from the shoot-out, Bobby would shoot him again just for his being a stupid fucker as he stormed out.

A week later, Angie came home after everyone had gone to bed. As she trudged her way to her own bed, Jack came out of his room to go to the bathroom. She meant to slip by him without stopping, but he grabbed her arm and said, "We have to talk."

She nodded wordlessly and waited for him in the hall as he went to take a piss. When he came out, he went back into his room and motioned for her to sit down on the chair. He looked as though he didn't know how to say what he had to say.

Clearing his throat, he finally said, "We should talk about a custody arrangement. I will be staying in town now, maybe start up another band. Now that the business with Sweet is over, Jerry got his loan and he said he'll give me a job for as long as I need one."

He went on talking about paying Angie child support and shit, but Angie didn't register another word. Her mind had gone blank until it seemed as if someone else had stepped into her body and said, "And what about us Jack?"

Jack sighed loudly as he said in an impatient tone, "There is no 'us' anymore Angie. There is just Sebastian. You lied to me. You robbed me of some of the most important times in my child's life." Looking at her with hard eyes, he said with a white knuckled grip on the edge of the bed where he sat, "That is something that can't be given back and can't be fixed Angie. I thought you would realize this when I ask for you to move your shit out of my room."

Angie stared at him stonily as he went on to say that he would remain living in his mom's house and he would like to see Sebastian as much as possible. When it looked as if he was finished she simply said, "Okay." And walked out of the room. She was completely numb. She didn't think she would be so calm, but Jack seemed to be able to pull the plug on their relationship as easily as he could unplug one of his guitars from an amplifier. Anger began to build in her, wiping out any trace of misery.

If he couldn't forgive her for what she did, well then, fuck him. Angela Montgomery was through with the guilt trip. The next day, she went back to her regular schedule. She spent most of her time either with her son or fixing up her house, informing everyone that she and Sebastian would be moving back into it at the end of the week. She got another part-time job waitressing at a steak house not far from Jerry's house, checked in with a few of her friends that she had been ignoring since Evelyn's funeral and basically got on with her life.

Jack finally had the cast removed and got better with the help of the physical therapist, and went to work with Jerry. Angel and Sofie decided to get married in the fall and Sofie asked Angie to be her Maid of Honor while Bobby was going to be Angel's Best Man. It wasn't going to be a huge deal at first, but then Sofie's mother almost had a heart attack at the mere idea that her little girl was going to be married at the county courthouse. Even Bobby winced at the level of the woman's voice as she shouted in Spanish. Angie and Jack interacted rarely, but when they did, they were both painfully polite and didn't waste time with chit chat. They each said what they had to say and that was that.

Before anyone knew it, a whole two months had passed. The only obvious change was the fact that if Jack was with any of his brothers when they went to Johnny G's, Angie would have whatever waitress was working with her that night wait on their table. She avoided spending any time with Jack whatsoever.

Instead of feeling relieved that the break-up had not been a messy one for their son, Jack was far from being a happy camper. He realized quickly that he was not only punishing her, but himself as well. But he was too stubborn to do anything about it. She was the one that lied in the first place, she should be the one to come to him, he decided in a snit.

Then, on a night that Jerry had insisted Jack come home with him for dinner after having worked late, Jack was on his way back from the bathroom when he came up behind Camille talking on the phone. It didn't take him long to figure out that she was talking to Angie and some perverse side of him made him stand there without making Camille aware of his presence in order to eavesdrop. Everyone had been remarkably silent on the subject of the end of his relationship with Angie, even Bobby, who simply shook his head and told his little brother that he was the stupidest fucker he knew and that was saying a lot.

He admitted to himself that a small part of him was shocked and just a little unhappy that she had not made an emotional scene after their 'talk'. He had half expected to have to be a complete bastard for her to take the hint and leave him alone. She had just sauntered downstairs the next day and informed everyone that since her and Jack's relationship was over, she would be moving and that was the end of it.

He knew that she would be in Angel's wedding and was in regular contact with everyone, but no one ever mentioned her in more than passing when he was in the room. The closest he had gotten was that day when Jerry had mentioned something and he had made a smart ass comment. Jerry had looked at him levelly and said that she had made a mistake and everyone did at one time or another. He had then changed the subject to the latest shipment of building materials that had arrived that day.

Jack felt as if someone tossed a bucket of ice-water over him as he heard Camille say, "Of course we'll watch him so you can go Angie, don't be silly. So, who is the guy, how did you meet him and what time should I send Jerry to come and get Sebastian?"

He walked away as Camille was ironing out all the details and went and sat on the couch, where he and Jerry had been watching the game highlights on the news, his mind whirling. He didn't really remember Jerry driving him home, be barely remembered going inside and climbing the stairs to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the wall until Bobby knocked on the door to say goodnight.

Noticing Jack looked like a bomb just went off, Bobby asked, concerned at his lack of response, "You okay there fairy?"

Jack simply nodded before saying right out of the blue, "Did you know Angie had a date tomorrow night?"

Bobby's eyebrows went up so far, they looked like they receded into his hairline as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe as he said casually, "Yeah. So?" Jack just shrugged so Bobby decided to push his buttons a little, "I think this is their…what was it…third date?" he acted as if he was trying to remember, "Or was it the fourth?"

Jack's head snapped up as he asked, "They been out before?"

Bobby shrugged and said, "Couple of times in the last couple of weeks I guess." He looked at his little brother, "Why do you care huh? She's nothing to you anymore. Did you think that she wouldn't find anyone else? 'Cause let me tell you brother, there are plenty of guy's in this city that would give their left nut just to be near her." Leaving him with that little jewel, he walked out, leaving Jack to think.

Jack laid down, playing with his guitar without really paying attention to what he was doing as he thought about what Bobby said. He wasn't jealous, he told himself. He was just concerned about the kind of man that was anywhere near his son, that's all. The thought of Angie's Third Date Rule didn't have anything to do with the sudden urge he had to smash his fist into something.

Nothing at all.

He remembered how long it had taken him to get into Angie's pants. Hell, even _he_ had only gotten a make-out session with their clothes on. She had definitely made him work for it. That had been one of the things that had made him fall in love with her. She was not like the other girls that had liked him because he was in a band, or because he played guitar, or because he was a Mercer and she was not a slut that would fuck any guy that wanted a piece of that delectable little ass. He had felt ten-feet tall and bullet proof when he had found out that she was a virgin and when she had given that to him, he had worn a goofy fucking smile for days until Bobby had threatened to smack it off before having him committed to the loony bin.

He scratched the next chord and groaned as the question of if the guy she was seeing was a better kisser than he was popped into his mind like a fucking cockroach. When his chest started to get tight and his heart started pounding so hard he thought anyone who came into the room would be able to hear it, he set his guitar down and sat up with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

What if she fell in love with this dude and they decided to get married or something? What if she got pregnant by him and had another baby? The image of Angie with a swollen belly due to pregnancy wavered in his head making him want to scream. But the next image, one of how she looked during an orgasm made him want to commit a very gruesome murder.

He sprang up from his bed and started to pace the room as he thought about the bigger picture of his relationship with Angie. Something he hadn't given _any_ thought to, preferring to wallow in his feelings of anger and hurt. Jack was not stupid. He knew that there would be other guys that wanted Angie, but he had been naïve enough to think she would not take any of them. For some reason, he imagined her doing nothing but living alone raising their son for the rest of her life.

God, he was such a dickhead. He was fucking up the best thing that ever walked into his life and sashayed into his heart. Without really thinking, he grabbed his sweatshirt and gloves and left the house.

After the front door slammed, Bobby, Angel and Sofie all opened their bedroom doors, went into the hallway and poked their heads around the corner of the stairs where they had a clear view of the inside front door and Jack slamming the outer door. They all grinned at each other as Sofie whipped out her cell phone and punched redial.

After a moment, she said, "Camille? It's Sofie. Tell Jerry that it worked. He's on his way to Angie's."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12

The house was dark when he got there and he wondered where Angie and Sebastian were. Deciding to wait for them, he plunked down in the swing on the porch and lit a cigarette. Going over what he wanted to say in his mind while he waited, he would get up every once and a while to stomp his feet to keep from getting hypothermia. Even then, he was still freezing his ass off. He had not had time to become re-accustomed to the frigid temperatures of a Detroit winter.

Deciding to take a walk around the block to warm himself up, he was on his second circuit when he came around the corner and spotted an unfamiliar Ford Taurus pull up in Angie's driveway. He stood there, two houses down as he watched Angie and some guy get out of the car and walk toward her front door.

He watched with his heart thundering and his blood pounded in his ears as the fuckhead leaned over and kissed Angie and that was when he lost it.

Angie refrained of giving a huge sigh of relief as her house came into view. Her date was a nice guy. He had been someone she had met during one of her shifts at the bar. He had asked her out right after she had gone back to work after Jack got out of the hospital and she had turned him down without even thinking about it. He had asked her if she had a boyfriend and Johnny had given her a sharp look when she said that no, she didn't. He had smiled at her and declared that he would keep coming back every night until she said yes.

Finally, after two weeks of his asking her out every night, she had said yes. The date had been nice enough, but she knew that her heart was not in it. She had initially accepted because her head told her that she had to get over Jack Mercer sometime and here was a perfectly nice guy that could help her do that.

He was everything that Jack Mercer was not. He dressed in perfectly pressed designer clothes, he drove a nice car, he had a steady job, owned his own house, liked classical music, went to college, preferred wine to beer and had not one tattoo.

His smell did not make her feel safe and content, the look in his eyes did not make her feel like the most beautiful girl on the planet, his smile did not make her heart pound, his voice did not memorize her and his every touch did not make her sing with desire.

He did none of the things for her that Jack did.

He was safe, dependable and boring. And Angie Montgomery did not feel the slightest bit of attraction for him. So when he leaned down to kiss her goodnight, she turned her head slightly so that his lips would land on her cheek. Her eyes widened and she squeaked when she saw Jack sprinting across the yard with a bloodthirsty look on his face. She jerked back just in time to avoid being knocked down by her dates body when Jack's fist landed dead in his face.

She heard the crack of a broken bone and she yelled, "Jack! No!" as she grabbed his arm as he swung it back, preparing to let it fly again. He shook her off like a housefly and jumped on top of the prone figure before him, landing punch after punch as he screamed, "THAT IS _MY_ FUCKING GIRL ASSHOLE!! YOU DON'T FUCKING TOUCH HER!!", while she kept screaming at him to stop and the one who was getting his ass kicked yelled in pain.

She tried, unsuccessfully, to drag Jack off of his opponent, only to get clipped in the chin when the guy tried to hit Jack back. Hearing her yell and knowing that the guy had hit her, even accidentally, renewed Jack's rage. Blows rained down on the guy like crazy until suddenly, Jack was yanked off of him like a rag doll.

Bobby had Jack in a half nelson as Jerry stood between Jack and the bloody mess on the ground, talking to Jack like one would an enraged animal. Angel bent over the groaning man, trying to get him up off the ground, which he was hugging like his new best friend. Sofie and Camille ran over to Angie who was sitting on the ground looking dazed and holding her chin.

Angie's dazed state didn't last long and she felt all the anger she had been holding back since Jack had thrown her out of his bed and out of his life boiled over, "JACK MERCER!!! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!!"

Everyone flinched as a group and Angel muttered, "Boom!" indicating to the others that the bomb had gone off. Looking down at Angie's date, or what was left of him, he said impatiently, "Get up boy! Act like you ain't never gotten an ass beatin' before." Angel yanked him to his feet.

The guy looked at Angie with wide eyes, "Your ex-boyfriend is a Mercer? And he is your son's father?" when Angie just nodded, the guy got even whiter than he already was as he stammered, "Yeah, okay…um I'll—I'll just be going now. Thanks for a nice night." He started towards his car at an almost run.

"I am SO sorry Ryan!" Angie called after him as Bobby, Sofie, Angel, Jerry and Camille tried to hide their snickers. Jack merely gave the guy a look that made him run faster.

Angel lost it and started to guffaw as he pointed at Bobby, "That's because of you."

"Yeah, like y'all didn't have nothin' to do with it" Jerry told Angel.

Bobby defended himself, "You helped you know, it wasn't just all me."

"Don't worry about it Angie." Ryan waved it off without stopping.

Bobby let Jack go just as Ryan's car peeled out of the driveway. Jack straightened his clothes and inspected his knuckles as he breathed heavily. As soon as Ryan's car disappeared from sight, Angie wheeled around and stalked off.

Jack gave Bobby and the rest a baffled look as he started to follow, wondering where she was going. He vaguely heard Jerry say, "I told y'all that she was gonna crack. Didn't I?"

"Yes you did baby." Camille crooned as she agreed with her husband.

Jack gave a little sigh of relief when Angel stomped up the porch of the Mercer house and flung the door open. She stood to the side and tapped her foot impatiently as the rest of the group caught up. She jerked her head towards the door with a murderous look and they filed into the house with hanging heads.

They all took a seat on the couch and tried to look innocent.

Angie let the tension build by her silence before she said, "Alright. Which one of you told him?"

Jack looked confused while the rest looked really uncomfortable. Camille finally spoke up and said, "None of us told Jack about your date tonight Angie, I swear." Well it was the truth. They hadn't let Jack overhear the conversation about the date she went on tonight, just the one she was going on tommorow.

"Did I not ask all of you to not interfere?" Angie said, not believing Camille for a minute.

"We didn't!" Bobby stated emphatically with a very, very quietly muttered, "Much."

Angie whirled and stomped up the stairs without a word, Jack following her to see where she was going. After giving each other a relieved look, Bobby told Camille, "I love you."

"Hey!" Jerry yelled, "She's your brother's wife ya bastard!"

Bobby told him with sincerity, "She just saved my balls as well as yours. I can love her if I want."

"Well alright then." Jerry said satisfied with that answer.

Upstairs, Angie made immediately for her old room and quietly opened the door. She stuck her head in and Jack saw that Sebastian was sleeping in the bed. Jack felt himself relax slightly as he saw that his son was home and safe. He had been blown away about how much he loved his son and how it had happened even before he knew that Sebastian was his. He knew he would literally kill or die for Sebastian without even thinking about it and the thought of that beautiful little boy being subjected to half the abuse that Jack had gone through before Evelyn Mercer saved him made him weak at the knees. Which was a why that he had a fit when Angie had once suggested hiring a babysitter.

Oh, hell no.

As far as Jack was concerned, Sebastian's safety was strictly a Mercer family duty. If it wasn't one of the family, it was no one…period.

Jack was brought out of his musings when Angie abruptly turned back and headed downstairs and straight out the front door onto the enclosed porch without a word.

"Here! Now!" she hissed at him with a deadly glare.

Suppressing the sudden desire to tell Bobby to come here and then use him as a human shield, Jack obeyed.

Once he joined her, she closed the door after him and put her hands on her hips, "What the fuck Jack?!" she yelled, "What gives you the right to show up at MY house and beat the shit out of a perfectly nice guy, huh?"

"He tried to kiss you." Jack muttered sulking.

Her eyes narrowed and she seemed to get even madder. They both knew that every single person inside the house was listening intensely to their loud conversation, but neither could take the time to actually care.

"Let's get something straight Jack!" she yelled as she poked him in the chest with one finger, "What—'poke'—I—'poke'—do—'poke'—is none—'poke, poke'—of—'poke'—YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!!" poke, poke, poke.

"Like hell it's not Angie!" Jack yelled back.

She continued to stab at his chest with her finger hard enough to make him back up a step with every word, "YOU were the one that said that there was NOTHING between us Jack! YOU were the one that told me to move my stuff out of your room!"

"I WAS FUCKING ANGRY OKAY?!!" Jack screamed, "I WAS ANGRY AND I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT WHAT I WAS DOING! BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I AM GONNA STAND THERE WHILE YOU MAKE OUT WITH GUYS IN FRONT OF ME!!"

"YOU DON'T OWN ME JACK MERCER!!" She screamed back.

"YES I DO ANGIE!" he grabbed her by the arms and slammed his mouth over hers in a passionate kiss. Licking her bottom lip, he groaned when she gave him entry to slide his tongue into her mouth and met it with hers. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her closer, as if trying to melt inside of her. When her arms flitted up to link around his neck, his slid down to cup her ass and lift her, locking her legs around his waist as he maneuvered her so that her back was against the brick wall of the house.

He continued exploring her mouth as he sucked on her tongue and thrust his hips against her pelvis, eliciting a long moan from her before tearing his mouth away to whisper as he brushed the sides of her face with his fingers, "I own you and you own me. It's been that way since we were kids Angie and nothing is ever gonna change that."

At the sound of his husky voice, Angie snapped back to her senses and stiffened like a board as she pushed him away from her. Raising a trembling hand to her mouth, she stepped away from him and peered out into the night. When she turned back, he was looking at her with such pain and confusion; it made her instantly angry again.

"Don't Jack." She snapped, "Don't look at me like that. You kick me out of your hospital room after almost dying, refuse to see me or talk to me and then, what was it you told me…ah, yes…'there was nothing between us but Sebastian'."

Jack took an involuntary step back from her as he winced.

"Now you have the fucking nerve to stand here and kiss me and tell me that you made a mistake?" she glared venomously at him, "So now what Jack, hmm? Let me guess, I'm supposed to welcome you back with open arms and open legs and that will be the end of it?" She spat out, "That's very fucking convenient. I make a mistake, one I am terrible, horribly, truly sorry about, and I get kicked to the fucking curb, but you make one and all is supposed to be forgiven and forgotten, hmm? Well TOO FUCKING BAD JACK!" she screamed, "You had your chance and now it's gone. I am getting on with my life. Like you said Jack…there is only Sebastian between us. Stay away from me."

"Angie, wait—please…don't do this." Jack called, going after her as she whirled around and flung open the outer door, then slammed it behind her.

She turned to face him as he stood in the open doorway and said with finality, "NO! You had your chances to forgive me Jack…now it's just too late."

He watched her jog back to her house, uncertain what to do to fix the mess he had made. He sagged down onto the porch with his head in his hands until Angel came up and clapped a hand to his shoulder. It wasn't until then that Jack realized that he had been crying.

A/N: Surprised? Heck, me too. I was going to have a happy ending here, but then I was just busy typing away, and this came out. I was like, Whoa! Back up that there horse…What? The plot bunnies have taken over.

I know that the chapters are now numbered wrong, but I am just to darn lazy to fix it at this point. Besides, I am (admittedly) a tinsy bit technology challenged, and I'm afraid that if I do anything about it, I will mess it up.

I would like to thank all my reviewers and those that added me to their story alerts and favorites without the reviews. You guys inspire me.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13

Angie slammed her way into her house and collapsed on the floor in the kitchen. After a long crying spell that gave her a headache, she went to the bathroom upstairs without turning on the lights. She stared at her reflection in the moonlit mirror as she wondered if she had just made a mistake.

Yes, Jack was being unfair. He was forgiving her, not because he truly forgave her for what she did, but because he was jealous of her going out with another man. Angie snorted, imagining him putting up a sign on the front lawn of her house that said 'Property of Jack Mercer'. The humor quickly fled her as she got dizzy. She put a hand on her head and swayed for a moment before suddenly retching into the sink.

Hurriedly cleaning her mess, she washed her face, brushed her teeth and rinsed out her mouth before moving to the bedroom and deciding to just go to bed and think about all of the events of the night in the morning. Stress had always had the effect of making her throw up, so she knew that a good nights rest would calm her and her stomach down.

She climbed into her favorite pair of pajamas, consisting of one of Jacks old t-shirts that had stretched out because she had stolen it from him before he left for New York and worn it all through her pregnancy with Sebastian, and a pair of boy-shorts. She brushed out her hair and lay down in the cushy bed, burrowing under the covers.

Carefully keeping any thoughts about the night and about Jack out of her mind, she stared at the new coat of paint on the walls. Instead of going with the white that had been there before, she and Sofie had decided to paint it a more soothing lilac instead.

Still consciously keeping thoughts of the mess that was currently her life, she fell asleep.

Back at the Mercer house, Jack stayed on the porch for more than an hour as he simply sat there with his head in his hands and his arms on bent knees. After a while, Angel had gone back inside, not knowing what to say to make Jack feel better.

Camille had come out soon after. Jack guessed that now Ma was gone, Camille was the woman of the family, not that Jack minded. He liked Camille a lot and he knew that she loved Jerry. If she hadn't, she would have broken it off with Jerry way back in high school, yet Jack could not think of a single time that Jerry and Camille had ever broken up. Not like Angel and Sofie, who had busted up at least once a week, but then again, Camille was not a drama queen like Sofie and she had a way of getting Jerry, actually all of the Mercer men, to do exactly what she wanted without whining until they went crazy, also unlike Sofie.

"Jack." Camille said softly and waited for Jack to raise his head from his hands. When he did, she smiled at him reassuringly and said, "Come into the house before you freeze to death." When Jack merely shook his head and laid it back into his hands, she added, "At least put this on." She held out his jacket.

He shrugged into the leather jacket and resumed his miserable vigil. She sat silently next to him for a long while before saying in the same soft tone, "I know that you are hurting right now Jackie, but just keep remembering that that girl loves you."

Jack shook his head without looking up as he choked out, "Not anymore Camille. You heard her…she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore." He sniffed. He felt like the fairy that Bobby was always calling him, but he just couldn't find it in him to care at this point.

Camille took his face between her hands and made him look up at her as she said firmly, "She still loves you, trust me, I know. She is just mad right now…do you even know why?"

"Because I'm a major fuck up?" Jack said bitterly.

She smiled a little and nodded, "Well, yes, but that's not all."

"Then what Camille?"

"Because you were too stubborn to forgive her when she was feeling so much shame and guilt for not telling you that she had had your baby." She said in that firm voice Ma would sometimes get when any of them had screwed up, "And because you were to stubborn to admit to yourself, let alone anyone else, that you had forgiven her until you got jealous about her going out on a date."

When he just looked at her uncomprehendingly, she sighed and explained, "She thinks it was only because you don't want anyone else to have her, not because you really forgive her and want her."

"But that's just stupid Camille!" Jack exclaimed with wide eyes, "She knows that I love her."

Camille laughed and let Jack go as she glanced at Angie's dark house, "But that's how women think Jack." She looked at him again, "You have to prove to her that you really want her in your life. Not because you don't want some other guy to come along and not because she is the mother of your child, but because you forgive her with your whole heart and you can't live without her."

"She knows that Camille." Jack said wearily, scrounging in his pocket for a cigarette.

Camille stood up and patted him on the shoulder as she said calmly, "I know. You just have to remind her of that." And she walked back into the house.

Jack sat on the porch long into the night, staring at Angie's house as he smoked and thought.

Bobby came out of the door at five in the morning and bullied Jack upstairs to his own bedroom. Before he left though, he told Jack gruffly, "If you need anything…" Bobby stopped and shrugged his muscular shoulders. Man this pansy love stuff was making him feel like he wanted to crawl out of his skin, "just—uh—just …go tell Jerry!" he finally said as he started to leave the room. He stopped in the doorway as he said without turning around, "I know you love her Jackie, you'll get her back."

Jack smiled a little, but it felt foreign on his face. "Thanks Bobby." He said as he settled back onto the bed with a sigh. Within minutes, he was asleep.

Angie woke up the next morning feeling like a truck had hit her, backed up and then hit her again. Her head felt wooly and her stomach still rolled as she sat up carefully, and then lay back down as she groaned when the room started to spin again. Deciding that moving was just not worth it at this point, she blindly reached for the phone next to her bed and dialed the Mercer house, praying that Jack wasn't the one who answered.

She was in luck as Angel picked up the phone on the second ring, "Hello?"

"Angel?" she asked as she sniffled.

His voice grew immediately concerned as he answered, "Angie? Are you all right?"

"Not really." She gave a small laugh, but before she could get to the point of the call, she heard Angel talking to someone and then a small tussle taking place, and then Bobby's voice came on the line.

"What's wrong Ang?" Bobby asked urgently.

"Nothing." She immediately replied, wanting to put his mind to rest, "I think I caught a cold last night, so I was wondering if Sebastian can stay there for the day. I'll come and pick him up this afternoon."

"Don't worry about it babe. We will keep him till you feel better and we'll have Sofie make you some chicken soup and run it over there okay?"

She almost sobbed in gratefulness as she answered honestly, "That would be great Bobby, thanks. I don't really want to take the chance of him catching anything from me."

"Not a problem Pipsqueak. You don't have to thank us, Sebastian is a Mercer and we take care of our own." He stated.

"I know Bobby."

"I'll run by your house later after work to check on you."

"You don't have to do that." She said.

Bobby told her sternly, "Didn't I just tell you that we take care of our own?"

"Yeah, but I'm not a Mercer Bobby." She pointed out.

"As good as. I'll send Sofie over there in a couple of hours. She is already starting to make the soup." Bobby explained.

"Okay. Tell her I said thanks." She smiled.

She heard Bobby relay the message and Sofie shouted, "Not a problem chica."

After assuring Bobby that Sofie had a key, she said goodbye. She then called both Johnny G and the restaurant and told them that she would be out due to sickness. Collapsing back onto the overstuffed pillow behind her, she pulled the blanket over her head and went back to sleep.

Jack woke up suddenly as Sebastian barreled into his room and jumped on his back as he lay on his stomach. Looking groggily at the clock, he saw that it was almost three in the afternoon. Groaning at the weight of a child bouncing on his back, Jack suddenly flipped over and tickled Sebastian until he squealed in delight and gasped that he had to pee.

While Sebastian went to the bathroom, Jack lay in bed for a moment before getting up with a groan. As he shuffled into the kitchen yawning, it was to find La Vida Loca stirring something in a pot on the stove. Jack took a sniff and realized it was chicken soup.

As he glanced questioningly at the Latina girl, she said, "It is for Angie. She called to ask if we can keep your son for a while because she was coming down with a cold." She smiled slightly.

Jack knew that Sofie and Angie were friends and after he looked into the living room to find Sebastian now playing Nintendo with Angel, he sat down at the table after pouring a cup of coffee. Before he could start to question Sofie, she said without turning from the stove, "Jeremiah said when he left last night that you could have the day off so we didn't bother to wake you up."

"That's good." He said lamely. The problem was that he had never actually sat down and had a conversation with the girl, so he had no clue on how to get her opinion of how to approach Angie. He felt guilty and a little ashamed as he thought that he had never given the girl a chance before automatically disliking her just because Bobby did.

Alright, that was not entirely true. Since Ma had adopted him, healed most of his wounds and showed him what it meant to have family, he had always had a hard time trusting anyone that was not named Mercer. It had even taken him a very long time to trust Angie with the nightmares of his past.

He had seen the volatile relationship his brother had had with the fiery girl and he had been sure that she would end up breaking Angel's heart at some point, while ignoring all the times that it had been Angel who had broken hers. Sure, Angel had been one hell of a man-whore, as Angie once put it, but he had never been able to stay away from Sofie for long. Even after their mom had died, Angel had barely unpacked his bags before going out to find her. Their arguments and break-ups were always about Angel's looking at other women or some sort of bullshit, but never once had Jack heard anything from anyone about Sofie cheating on Angel.

With all of this in mind, Jack examined his bruised knuckles for a minute before clearing his throat and asking, "Sofie? Can you sit down for a minute?"

Sofie looked at him apprehensively before complying. When she was seated, Jack said, "I want to apologize." Sofie looked at him a little shocked, and he went on, "I realize that I have never given you a fair shake. Instead, letting Bobby's opinion of you form my own and I want to say that I'm sorry." He looked at her with sincerity in his blue eyes, "I guess that I thought that because you and Angel fought so much, that it meant that you didn't care about him as much as he did you. I can see now that I was really wrong about that and I wanted to tell you that I am happy that you and my brother love each other and that you are going to be my sister."

Sofie burst into tears and flung her arms around his neck as she muttered something in her native tongue as she sobbed. Jack looked around for help and found Angel standing in the doorway. He had obviously overheard what Jack had said and couldn't have been more pleased by the huge smile on his face. Taking pity on Jack, Angel pried Sofie off of him after Jack gave her a couple of awkward pats on the back and pulled her into his own arms.

"Thanks little brother." Angel said with a smile as his fiancée sobbed on his shoulder while muttering incomprehensively, "You don't know how much it means to us that you welcome Sofie into the family.

Jack blushed a little as he said, "You did Angie. All of you have always accepted her because you knew that I loved her, so it's the least I can do for you."

Jack got up from the table and went to go watch TV with his son as he plotted on how to get his girl back.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14

Angie felt better a couple of days later. She still had random bouts of nausea, so her appetite was not what it usually was, but the stuffy nose and headaches were gone. Sofie and Camille came over every day to bring her food and magazines and to keep her company.

Bobby came over so much that she was sure he had moved in, and Angel played her errand boy, going to get anything she needed while Jerry stayed at home with his girls when he wasn't working so that Camille could mother hen her. Jack, she figured since she didn't bother to ask, stayed at home with Sebastian.

Jack.

What was she going to do about him? She often wondered to herself as she lay in bed. She loved him so much and it hurt her to be away from him, but she had tried many times to tell him the truth, yet he had put her off saying that they would talk after the business about his mother was finished. She understood that if he had suspected what she had to say, he would have demanded that she tell him on the spot, but she had been too much of a coward to give him a hint.

When she finally told him, it was while he laid in the blood and the snow, teetering on the edge of living or dying. She cringed when she thought of this. She should have told him, no matter how much stress he was under at the time. She should have made him listen to her. If only she had told him when she first found out she was pregnant.

Before she could get on this train of regret, Camille let herself into Angie's house with a shout. Angie gave herself one last look in the bathroom mirror and went downstairs to find out what had Camille so excited. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, Camille was doing a little jig in the hallway, making Angie laugh.

"What's going on Camille?" Angie asked while snickering.

Camille flashed her a huge smile as she danced herself into the kitchen and got something to drink. When they were both seated at the worn pine table, Camille's face became more serious as she said, "Angie, you know that mine and Jerry's anniversary is coming up right?" Angie nodded. Camille gave her puppy dog eyes as she said, "We are going to have a party. Not just for our anniversary, but for everything. Catching Evelyn's killers, Jack being okay and Jerry's business doing so much better. We have a lot to celebrate…all of us." Camille stared into her eyes coaxingly.

"I know we do Camille." Angie said with a smile.

Camille shifted in her seat uncomfortably before rolling her eyes and saying. "Look Angie. I know that the last person you want to see right now is Jack, but this is for the family…do you think you can suck it up for a couple of hours to party with us?"

Angie didn't know what to say for a moment. Did they honestly think that she would not want to celebrate the Mercer family coming out of everything that happened almost unscathed, simply because her and Jack couldn't get their shit together? She said as much to Camille.

Camille gave her a strict look as she said, "Angie, I know that Jack hurt you and now you have hurt him. There—you are even. Now you need to do what you have to do to fix things with your man. Do you know what Jack has been doing all week?" Angie shook her head like a scolded child, "When he isn't putting up this big front with Sebastian, he locks himself in his room and listens to sad love songs. He is depressed Angie, he knows that his behavior hurt you and he doesn't know what to do about it." She reached across the table and squeezed Angie's hand as Angie's eyes filled with tears, "You love each other, hell, everybody in Detroit knows that! Give the boy a break Angie. Stop punishing him and yourself."

"But what if…" Angie sniffed, "what if he doesn't really forgive me? He was dead set against us being together anymore until he saw Ryan kiss me."

Camille snorted and slapped a fist on the table, "Angie honestly! Do you think Jack, who has always been the least violent of the Mercer brothers, would have beat the shit out of a guy that dared to try to kiss you if he didn't love you? No. You and I both know what happened to any girl that he dated before you that he caught cheating on him. He walked away and forgot them. You are the only one he ever got possessive like that about, because you were the only one he ever really loved. The others were just someone to get laid."

Angie twiddled her fingers as she thought about what Camille was saying. She knew that Camille was right. She was over reacting to the whole situation. She was paying Jack back for the hurt he caused her tit-for-tat. Now she just had to figure out how to fix it.

"Jackie-Boy." Jerry called as he knocked on the door to his little brother's room. Hearing Jack call back for him to come in, he opened the door to find Jack lying on the bed with his hands behind his head staring at the ceiling while Journey's 'Faithfully' played on the small stereo.

Jerry sighed and shook his head at the miserable mess that was his baby brother before entering the room and sitting down in the chair next to the bed. "Come on now, don't you think you have moped around long enough?"

Jack didn't answer, just turned the song up louder. Jerry reached over and turned it back down and asked, "Where is Sebastian?"

"Angel and Sofie took him out to Chucky Cheeses for lunch." Jack answered without taking his eyes off of the ceiling.

Jerry sat back and pulled off his gloves and said, "Listen. Camille and I are having a party, to celebrate. The business with Victor Sweet is over, you are okay, you got a boy, Angel and Sofie have finally decided to get married and the business is doing good, so let's party!" he grinned with his big teeth, "We want you and your new band to play. It won't be just the family, there will be all our friends and the guys from work and their dates. You game?"

"Yeah, I guess." Jack said without any enthusiasm and still with his eyes on the ceiling, but Jerry didn't let that get him down as he told him that they were going to have the party the next weekend in the Hyatt hotel and that Jerry had gotten all the family rooms. Sofie and Camille had already went to go organize the decorations and libations and Angel and Bobby already knew about it.

Bobby had a fit a couple of days earlier when he asked Sofie to make herself useful and make him a sandwich and Sofie flung plain ham on bread at him while making Jack the biggest BLT that Bobby had ever seen while smoothing Jack's hair and giving him a kiss on the top of his head. When Bobby asked why Sofie was being so nice to Jack, Angel told him with a big smile that Jack had apologized for always being a dick to her and had welcomed her into the family. This information made Bobby hiss 'Traitor!' at Jack at every opportunity while bemoaning the fact that there was definitely no way of getting rid of La Vida Loca now.

Over the course of the week, Jack tried to be excited about the party. It would be the first time that he and his band would be playing since they had formed. They were pretty good, if he said so himself. At least, if not better than his old band. They were not looking to be international rock stars, just well known enough to play when they liked and stay close to home, because most of the band members were family guys. Paul had a wife and two kids and Ronny and his girlfriend had four, even though he was only twenty-five. He liked to joke that his sperm was strong enough to overcome any and all forms of contraceptives. Jason was the only single guy of the group, but he was dedicated to taking car of his ill grandmother to be bothered that the rest of them were not dreaming about private jets and expensive yachts.

After their practice sessions, three days before the party, they decided to have a couple of beers together before going their own ways. They would do that sometimes and they had ended up at Johnny G's when they saw Angie. Jason took one look at the barmaid and let out a long, low whistle.

"Holy shit! Would you look at her!" he exclaimed with his mouth hanging open, "I think I'm in love."

"What? Where?" Paul and Ronny swung their heads around to look. When they saw her, they both said, "Wow!" before turning back to Jason and daring him to go talk to her. When he started to stand up to go do that, Jack, who had had his eyes glued to her since they walked in, hissed at Jason, "Don't even fucking think about it!"

The other three looked at him with round eyes before Paul asked, "Why shouldn't he go try to ask her out Jack? Do you want her for yourself?" he teased.

Jack glowered at the others before taking a swig of his beer and saying, "That's Angie. She is my—she's the mother of my son." He cursed himself as he almost said that she was his girl, because he was starting to seriously doubt that she ever would be again.

Jason sat back down. He was an alright guy. It was plain to everyone at the table that Jack was obviously still hung up on the girl. And no real friend would poach where it might get his dick ripped off, especially by a Mercer. No chick was worth that.

"She's the ex you keep singing those sappy songs about?" Paul asked as he looked back over his shoulder at her.

Jack just nodded and drank the rest of his beer. Not really wanting to elaborate on the subject of his fucked up love life. But then the guys had started to badger him for information. They were all intensely curious on how he managed to lose a girl that good looking and why he wasn't doing anything about it.

Jack drank a couple of more beers and told them the whole story. When he was finished, they all looked at each other before Paul said, "Dude? What are you waiting for? Go over there and talk to her!"

Jack shook his head and Ronny called him a pussy before saying, "You know you want too, and the worst that would happen is she says no, come on, man up and get your ass over there!"

Again, Jack just shook his head and said, "She won't want to talk to me. She told me to stay away."

"Yeah, but that was when she was mad." Ronny said, "My old lady tells me that all the time, usually after she has to go buy a pregnancy test, but still! She always calms down when its time to go to bed." He leaned forward and poked the table to prove his point as Paul nodded in agreement.

Paul said, "She's had a couple of days now to get over it, so get off your ass man!"

When Jack still looked unsure, they grumbled and Paul, who was the one to drive them to the bar, "Fine man, whatever. We're just going to go and leave your ass here. Hitch a ride with your girl or walk." With nods at one another, they all got up and told him they would see him Friday for one last practice before the party. Jack glared at them as they left and then turned his attention back to the bar.

He had planned on talking to her, but not tonight. He had planned on doing it at the party, thinking they could go somewhere private and talk. But the guys were right. Angel and them were right too, he was being the worlds biggest pussy. But then, the very real possibility of rejection at the hands of the love of their lives was enough to turn any man into a chicken.

He knew that she noticed him sitting there by himself as he kept is eyes glued to her and by the time the bar closed, she was a nervous wreck. He finally got up and walked up to the bar. He cleared his throat to get her attention and asked, "Um, Angie, could you give me a ride back to the house when you're finished? The guys left me here."

She looked at him with a mixture of apprehension and hope before her expression closed and she nodded, "Sure. I have to pick Sebastian up anyway."

He sat at the bar until everything was cleaned and put away and with a nod in his direction, she led him out of the bar and into the parking lot as they told John goodnight. It took a couple of minutes to get her car started as the temperature had dropped to freezing as her car had sat in the cold for hours. Jack looked over at her a couple of times as she drove carefully down the snow filled streets.

Detroit in the spring…you gotta love it…or move somewhere else.

Angie, keenly aware of his eyes on her started to make small talk, "So. How is your band doing?"

"Fine." He answered her, "We are playing at the party on Saturday. Are you going to be there?"

She pulled up to the house as she answered, "Yeah. Camille and Jerry roped her sister's three girls to babysit all the kids in one of the rooms so that the parents can enjoy themselves at the party."

"That was nice of them." Jack answered as she opened her door and got out. He saw his chance to talk to her slipping away and reached for her arm, stopping her in the middle of the sidewalk. He noticed that everyone was there. Sofie and Bobby's cars were parked in the driveway while Jerry's sat in the street. He knew that this was his best chance to talk to her alone.

"Can I talk to you Ang?" he asked softly with pleading in his eyes.

She stopped walking and turned to face him. For a moment, neither one of them knew what to say, so Angie finally spoke up and said, "Let's go sit on the porch."

Jack nodded and followed her.


	16. Chapter 16

_A/n: This is it! The last chapter!! *waaaaa-waaaaaa* It is soooo hard for me to let this story go._

Chapter 15

Inside to enclosed porch, she perched on the chair while he sat on the old couch that sat against the wall where his mom had liked to sit on hot summer nights. If either one of them noticed that the house was suspiciously silent, they didn't mention it. He knotted his fingers together and looked up at her. "I'm sorry Angie. I'm sorry I was so mad at you when you told me about Sebastian and I'm sorry for beating up that guy and ruining your date, but most of all…" he trailed off and cleared his throat, "most of all, I'm sorry that you think the only reason that I want you back is because of Sebastian or because you have some fucked up idea in your head that it's just because I'm jealous."

Tears started to run down her face as she looked at him with love, "I cheated both you and Sebastian of a relationship, of getting to know each other." She whispered as she looked at her hands in her lap. She wanted so much to believe that he was truly forgiving her for everything and that he wanted to get back together. "You had every right to be angry Jack, but when you just shut me out like that…I made me feel like it wasn't all that hard for you to stop…" she trailed off.

"Stop what Angie?" Jack asked with a frown.

She still refused to look at him as she whispered, "Stop loving me."

Jack leaned closer to her and putting a finger under her chin, raised her head up so that he could look into her eyes, "That would never EVER happen Angie." He whispered softly to her as she saw the love in those beautiful blue eyes again.

He knew then that everything would be alright, as all the tension left his body. She still loved him and that they had a real chance of becoming a family with their son like he had always wanted. He gave her a deep, longing kiss. Running his tongue into her mouth like a starving man being offered a steak. After a while the kiss tempered into something more tender and loving, holding all their plans for the future. Their future…together.

They kissed for a long time before pulling apart and then, after they both caught their breath, he nodded in agreement, "Yes, you did keep things secret from me that should not have been secret Angie." He took her hand in his and pulled her into his lap as he whispered in her ear, "You also gave me the most wonderful kid on the face of the fucking planet." He kissed the corner of her eye and whispered, "I was angry about that, yeah but most of all, I was angry that I had missed all those moments with _you. _Your first doctor's appointment, when you started to show, when he started to move inside of you…that kind of stuff. Seeing you with that guy, seeing him touch you…it made me realize how childish I was being about the whole thing. I know you didn't cheat on me the first time, but after you moved back to your place, I had this idea, stupid as it was, that there wouldn't be any other guys. So when I found out that you were going on a date, it threw me off, made me think about what I expected the rest of our lives to be like. And it wasn't anything I liked."

"I am sorry about lying about being pregnant Jack. But I didn't want you to give up the dreams you had for so long to take care of a family that we hadn't planned on until after you had achieved everything you wanted." Angie said crying softly.

"I know that sweetheart." He said as he rested his forehead on her shoulder, "But I also knew as soon as I got to New York that it just wasn't the same without you. No matter how many gigs the band got, no matter how many fans, there was always something missing. It was the same with the girls. It was always incomplete because none of them were you. I was always comparing them to you and they never could measure up." He kissed her neck softly.

She stiffened in his lap, "I don't want to hear about all the groupies you banged Jack!" she snapped with a frown.

He frowned just as fiercely as he told her, "And I don't want to hear about any of your boyfriends Angie. That's not what this is about. Why are you getting mad? It's not like there was no one else since we broke up."

She squirmed, trying to stand up and not meeting his eyes, but he tightened his arms around her to stop her as the truth hit him like a baseball bat, "There was other guy's wasn't there? I mean…after I left and after you had Sebastian?"

"Oh yes Jack!" she sneered, "I fucked half of the fucking city after you left! It was kinda hard while taking care of a dying mom and a newborn, not to mention working two jobs to pay the medical bills, but hey, I managed to find the time!"

At her confirmation, sarcastic as it was, that she had never been to bed with anyone else, Jack couldn't help but to grin stupidly. It had been something he had consciously pushed out of his mind ever since being together with her again. Even though he could not say the same, while the sex had gotten him off, it had always left a bad taste in his mouth and the feeling of wanting to scrub himself raw to get rid of the dirt.

He told her emphatically, even though he still had the stupid grin on his face, "Well now there won't ever be anyone else Ang." He turned her around so that she straddled his lap and cupped her face between his hands as he kissed her between every word, "I am yours and you are mine." He gave her a lingering kiss before half ordering and half declaring, "No other guy is ever going to be with you for as long as there is breath in my body."

"So should I just get a tattoo that says, 'Exclusive Property of Jack Mercer'?" When he appeared to be giving it some serious thought, she laughed and smacked him on the arm as she said, "If I get one, you get one that says 'Exclusive Property of Angie Montgomery'."

Jack became serious once more as he said, "I will not get a tat that says Angie Montgomery." She looked stricken as he pulled the ring off of his finger. Holding it out to her, he said in a choked voice filled with love, fear and uncertainty, "But I would not be against getting one that said 'Property of Angie Mercer'." Tears started down her cheeks again, "I haven't taken this off since the day I left Angie. I was going to give it to you when I…well, the last time that I saw you before I went to New York." He handed her the ring as he whispered, "Look inside."

Tears sprang into her eyes again as she read the inscription. She looked at him with hope and he pulled her tighter as he said, "I know it isn't a proper wedding ring, or even close to an engagement ring, but it was all I could afford at the time and well…" the rest of what he was going to say was stifled as she kissed him with all the love in her heart.

After a few minutes, she asked with a dazzling smile, "Is that a marriage proposal?"

Clearing his throat to hide his nervousness, "No." he said as he pushed her off of him and then got down on one knee, "This is." He took her shaking hands in his equally unsteady ones, "I love you Angie Montgomery. I have loved only you since we were sixteen and I know that I will never love anyone else. There are no words that can express how happy and grateful I would be if you agreed to become my wife. I will promise you anything that it is in my power to give you if only you would say yes."

Angie was sobbing and shaking in happiness as she said, "Jack Mercer, I have loved you since we were fourteen," she corrected him, "and I will love you until the day that I die. Nothing would make me happier than to be yours forever, and the only thing you can give me that I want is yourself. I would be proud to be your wife." She kissed him tenderly.

They both looked up at the explosion of cheering coming from inside the house. Smiling at each other, Jack carefully slid the ring on her finger, kissing it tenderly and when they went inside holding hands, they saw Bobby, Angel, Camille, Jerry and Sofie all exchanging money.

"What they hell guy's?" Jack exclaimed as his jaw dropped, "We're family! How could you be betting on me and Angie getting back together?"

"We wasn't betting on that." Bobby laughed, "We bet on how long it would take."

"And how long Angie would make you sweat." Angel grimaced as he said to Angie, "Couldn't you have held out for just a little bit longer? You THAT addicted to what his dick did?" he said teasingly echoing Jack's words about Sofie.

"Yup." Jack answered for his fiancée smugly. Angie laughed and smacked his shoulder. She suddenly grimaced and clapped a hand over her mouth. With a muffled, "Shit!" she tore up the stairs to the bathroom. Concerned, Jack sprinted after her only to be shoved aside by both Camille and Sofie. They all ran into the bathroom and slammed the door in his face.

Jack stood there stupidly for a minute before yelling, "Angie! Angie, baby, all you alright?" as he pounded on the door. He heard the three women hold a whispered conversation before Angie exclaimed, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!" Another whispered conversation that lasted slightly longer and then Camille wrenched open the door.

Jack craned his neck to get a look into the small bathroom and saw Angie on her knees in front of the toilet and Sofie rubbing her back in comforting circles before Camille pushed him back into the hallway and closed the door behind her. "I'm sure it was just something she ate Jack. I'm going to go to the store and get her something to make her feel better. You go back on downstairs, she is in no shape to see anybody until she is feeling a little better." She told him with an understanding smile.

He heard the unmistakable sound of the lock on the door sliding into place and, disgruntled, he went back down to talk to his brothers. Throwing himself down on the couch next to Jerry and Angel, he cross his arms, knowing that he looked ridiculous sulking like a five year old. The feeling got worse as Jerry asked what was going on and Jack told him, finishing with, "They won't even let me see her to make sure she's all right."

"It was probably something she ate." Bobby offered helpfully while Jerry just looked thoughtful. Before long, the front door opened and closed and all four of them watched Camille hurry upstairs to the bathroom with a white plastic bag in her hand as she called out without stopping, "Pepto Bismal coming up!"

Pepto Bismal apparently took half a fucking hour to drink. Jack fumed to no one in particular. By this time, even Bobby was getting annoyed, the aggravation not being helped by Jack's nervousness which was making him jumpy, while Angel bitched about women always taking to long in the bathroom and Jerry grinned so wide every one of his big ass teeth were showing until Bobby told him that if he didn't stop it, Bobby would punch him in the mouth and knock his fucking teeth out.

Finally, when Jack thought he would have to enlist someone's help in breaking the door down and finding out what was wrong with his woman, they all came down the stairs, still whispering fiercely and half dragging Angie. They all stood in the doorway awkwardly as Angie looked like she was going to throw up again and the other two kept nudging her and giving her looks that said, 'Go on'.

Jack had just opened his mouth to ask what the hell all that was about when Bobby demanded, "What the fuck is going on? It takes a half an hour to drink some medicine?"

Camille looked from Bobby to Angie to Jack and back to Angie before jabbing her with an elbow sharply, "Tell him!"

"Tell me what?" Jack jumped from the couch and crossed over to his fiancée. Lifting her face with a long finger and wrapping his arms around her, he asked, "Baby what's the matter?"

"It doesn't take a half an hour to drink Pepto Bismal!" she blurted with a wild look in her eyes.

"Huh?" Jack was not getting it.

Angie, still shaken by the news, tried to focus, "It takes half an hour for a pregnancy test…or five."

Jack's jaw dropped to the ground and Bobby choked on his beer. Jerry, still wearing a big shit eating grin, pounded him on the back helpfully.

"P—positive? All?" Jack stammered.

Angie was worried about his reaction at yet another unplanned pregnancy. She nodded, biting her lip. She was shocked, but as she sat with her head in the toilet, trying not to puke again after thinking of Bobby using the same toilet, she had gotten a little used to the idea and imagined another little Sebastian, or even a little girl. Both, of course, who would look just like Jack. Finding out that he was the father of a three year old was hard enough, but the shock of finding out there was another one on the way would probably send him into a coma.

Jack threw back his head and laughed. Angie's tension went away as he hugged her. Finally, he calmed down and looked at her with tears in his blue eyes. He tenderly kissed her as he said, "I guess all that wrestling paid off for Sebastian. Seems like he might get that little brother he wants sooner than he thought."

Angie threw her arms around his neck in relief that he wasn't all freaked out. He pulled away far enough to rub her belly tenderly as everyone congratulated them.

Eventually, Angel asked, "How did it happen though? I know for a fact that Jack took a whole box of rubbers from me when Angie was first staying here. Did you forget to use 'em?"

"No." Jack answered.

"Because man," Jerry answered him, "Condoms are not a hundred percent effective, everyone knows that."

"WHAT?!!!" Both Bobby and Angel shrieked like little girls as they gazed at Jerry in horror. Angel swung around to look at Sofie as Bobby frantically tried to remember the names and numbers of every girl he ever slept with.

Sofie bit her lip and said, "Umm, honey…I think we need to talk."

At these ominous words, Angel Mercer, big, tough, scary Marine who could kill the man that killed his mother without flinching or having any guilt, promptly passed out and hit the floor with a large thud.

Later that night after a rousing round of heavy make-up sex, Angie and Jack lay cozily ensconced in Jack's twin bed. Jack was laying between her legs streached out with his head near her stomach, running his lips over the very small swell of Angie's belly while lazily planting small sucking kisses on the skin. Angie asked as she ran her fingers through his messy hair tugging lightly as he groaned in appreciation, "Are you sure you're okay with this Jack?"

He smiled against her skin as he said softly, "Happy, ecstatic, delirious, excited, scared as hell and terrified that I will absolutely suck as a dad, but yes Angie, I'm definitely okay with this. Are you?" he asked as he looked up the length of her body into her eyes.

Angie smiled and said, "Definitely. And you are going to be an abso-freakin'-lutly amazing dad Jack. You already are to Sebastian. You're his hero."

Jack smiled and went back to getting familiar with her baby bump. After a while, the sensation of his lips murmuring things to her stomach that were felt more than heard, she started to doze off, only to become alert when he said, "Ang?"

"Hmm?" she hummed with her eyes still closed.

"I want to get married before the baby comes." Jack said, "And we need to think of some names and stuff." He levered himself up next to her and brushed her nose with his.

"We will." Angie said sleepily.

"When?"

"What is today?"

"Wednesday."

"And how long do we have to wait for the license?" she asked curiously, "Two days, right?"

"I guess. I don't really know." He shrugged.

She cleared her throat as she thought. "Why don't we do this, we go apply for the license tomorrow, then right before the party, we kidnap everyone and go to city hall and get married?"

Jack looked down into her face as he asked, "You don't want a big deal like Sofie and Angel are having?"

She pillowed her head on his chest and started to trace his tattoos with her finger as she said, "No. Too much stress and by the time everything is organized, I'll be so huge I won't want anyone to look at me." She flicked her tongue over his nipple, causing him to shiver deliciously and added, "All I need is you, me, Sebastian and the family. Everyone else can buy us, or rather you, a beer the next time we see them, or better yet!" She suddenly sat up in excitement, and he pulled her back down, being very comfortable in the position they had been in, "The party is a celebration of everything good for the Mercer's right?" he nodded, "We can just announce that we got married at the party and celebrate the wedding at the same time!"

Whatever made her become his wife that much faster, he was all in favor for. "Good idea baby. We'll tell everyone tomorrow. I like the way you think." Jack said as he rolled her over on her back and trailed kisses from her lips to her left nipple.

Later on, as Angie lay sleeping in his arms; Jack finally felt that everything in his life was right. He and Angie were together and she would be his wife within a matter of days. That they were going to have another baby blew his mind. Angel had finally woken up when Sofie poured a cold beer on his face and he had gotten used to the idea that he was going to be a dad. Bobby reluctantly gave his blessing to Angel and Sofie's marriage and Jerry and Camille announced that as if Sofie and Angie both being pregnant with the next generation of Mercer's weren't enough, they were going to have baby number three themselves. So really, the only one that wouldn't be a father within the next year was Bobby.

"Angie?" he whispered into her ear, waking her up, "Angie? We need to find Bobby a girl."

THE END…OR IS IT?

A/N: That's it, the final chapter!! *crying in hankies* It is so hard for me to let this story go, but I have plans! *laughs evilly* Muhahahaha! Thank you everybody who has reviewed for this story, you guys were awesome! I decided to leave this story here, but I am thinking of a sequel in order to find the Michigan Mauler his own happiness, which must include a smoking hot babe. I don't yet have the plot all figured out, so it may take a while, that is, if I even decide to write it!

*twiddles thumbs and rolls eyes innocently*

Okay, ya caught me…I am already working on it! But like this story, I won't start to post until I have most of the story finished, so nah!


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